Author: Chris Anu
Phil Boyall, Sales and Marketing Director at MoData. South Africa’s banking and payments sector is no longer transforming – it is running live, at speed under scrutiny.Regulatory modernisation, real‑time payment rails and rising financial crime complexity have removed tolerance for delay, uncertainty and operational fragility. What used to be absorbed by batch cycles, manual controls and overnight fixes is now exposed instantly – in production, under regulatory and operational pressure. For banks and payment operators, payments transformation is no longer a strategy discussion – it is an operational reality playing out every day in production systems.Industry‑led initiatives driven by the…
Lincoln Mali JSE- and Nasdaq-listed fintech Lesaka Technologies is involved in a corporate shake-up, including an internal rationalisation of its operating portfolio and an outward facelift of its brand identity. Lincoln Mali, MD for Southern Africa at Lesaka Technologies, said the incorporation of recently acquired Bank Zero into the Lesaka stable – which still requires regulatory approval from the Prudential Authority of the South African Reserve Bank – is key to its strategy as it restructures to take advantage of groupwide synergies. “Today we lend money – up to R1-billion to consumers and about R300-million in the merchant space, with…
Africa’s CEOs are optimistic but slow to scale artificial intelligence. (Image created using GenAI via ChatGPT) African CEOs continue to trail their global counterparts in deploying artificial intelligence (AI) across business functions, as they remain stuck in experimental AI phases, finding it difficult to scale initiatives into enterprise-wide deployments.This is one of the key findings of PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey: Africa perspective. It found that more than 150 CEOs in Africa who participated in the survey demonstrate strong operational resilience and reinvention as they navigate currency fluctuations, political uncertainty, infrastructure constraints and supply chain disruptions.It highlights a slower pace…
South Africa’s employers keep saying the same thing: graduates can recall information, but they can’t solve problems. The World Economic Forum ranks analytical thinking as the single most important skill for the future workforce, comprising 9.1% of core skills reported by companies globally. Critical thinking, complex problem solving and cognitive flexibility follow close behind. These aren’t niche requirements for specialist roles. They’re baseline expectations for entry-level positions across industries. Visit cambrilearn.com to learn more Meanwhile, South Africa ranks 107 out of 141 countries in global skills readiness. Youth unemployment sits at 44%. And employers consistently report that they struggle to…
Bitcoin lost 35.36% in value over the past 90 days. (Graphic: Nicola Mawson | Freepik) Bitcoin has recovered some of its recent losses, climbing 5.54% early this morning after a rout that saw it lose 35.36% over the past 90 days – a decline of $36 210 (R588 438) at this morning’s exchange rate of R16.25.In October, Bitcoin reached an all-time high, breaking through the $125 000 mark at an exchange rate of R17.26, making it worth as much as R2.1 million.Bitcoin is currently trading around the $65 000 mark (R1 million) amid risk-off sentiment in global markets, says Marius…
South Africa said on Friday that trade minister Parks Tau has signed a framework economic partnership agreement on a visit to China, which it described as a step towards securing duty-free access to the Chinese market for South African exports. Africa’s biggest economy is seeking to boost exports amid a tariff row with the US, its second largest bilateral trading partner after China. US President Donald Trump imposed a 30% tariff on South African exports to the US in August, the highest rate in sub-Saharan Africa. An ‘early harvest agreement’ by end-March 2026 will then see China provide duty-free access…
Dominic Rey joins Iress as MD of its wealth management business in SA. Financial services software company Iress has appointed Dominic Rey as MD of its wealth management business in South Africa, effective February 2026.This as local wealth firms face tighter regulation, margin pressure and rising client expectations, Iress said in a statement.According to Statista, the wealth management market in SA is experiencing significant growth and development, driven by various factors such as changing customer preferences, emerging trends in the market, local special circumstances and underlying macroeconomic factors. Customer preferences in the wealth management market in SA are shifting towards…
Global markets retreated on Friday as a stock rout on Wall Street went global, with volatility gripping precious metals and cryptocurrencies while AI fears weighed on equities. The MSCI All-Country World Index rallied off intra-session lows to trade flat, but the benchmark was still on track for its worst weekly performance since mid-November, with a decline of 1.6%. A projected US$600-billion AI spending spree by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta Platforms this year has fuelled fears about the cost of the artificial intelligence boom, while concerns about disruption in sectors including software and data services continued. You’ve had the AI…
In this episode of ITWeb TV, news editor Admire Moyo talks to Daniel du Plessis, communications director at Milkor, about the Milkor 380 unmanned aerial vehicle, an advanced medium-altitude, long-endurance platform which exemplifies South Africa’s growing prowess in aerospace technology and its potential to enhance security, surveillance, and operational efficiency. #UAVs #Drones #AerospaceTech #Milkor380With geopolitical relations changing and simmering, South African-based defence and aerospace company Milkor is looking to double the production of its locally-developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the Milkor 380. So said Daniel du Plessis, communications director at Milkor, in a wide-ranging interview with ITWeb TV.The interview followed…
Imagine walking into your local store and paying with a cryptocurrency that always equals R1 – no wild swings, no speculation, just self‑sovereign certainty. A digital token that settles faster than today’s banking rails and at a fraction of the cost. That’s the promise of stablecoins – digital assets built for stability in a market known for chaos. They’re already reshaping how money moves by combining the reliability of traditional currency with the speed and efficiency of modern blockchain technology, powering everything from payments and remittances to protection against currency volatility. They also act as the on‑ramp to bring fiat…