Globally, there is much hype around 5G.  In Africa, whilst that conversation undoubtedly has its place, solutions to Africa’s connectivity still require consideration around legacy 2G, 3G and even 4G networks, which remain the continent’s predominant connectivity sources.   Taking a look at the global state of play of 5G and its place in Africa, or not, this year’s 5G Africa series, will form part of the virtual Africa Tech Festival. 

SINNAD, a leading GCC third-party payment service provider based in Bahrain, has teamed up with trusted partner Compass Plus to enable its customer banks to offer consumers seamless and secure mobile payments through BenefitPay, the country’s national electronic wallet payment system. As part of the project, SINNAD successfully certified its processing centre, built on Compass Plus solutions, with the tokenisation service from Bahrain Electronic Network for Financial Transactions (BENEFIT).

Itiviti, a leading technology and service provider to financial institutions worldwide, today announced the cloud transformation of its entire electronic trading platform. Itiviti opted for a hybrid private-public cloud strategy to reinforce the modularity and flexibility of the Itiviti platform.  

To operate the transformation, the company will collaborate with data center experts Data Canopy and technology and supply chain services specialist Ingram Micro, and leverage Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

The acquisition of the fast-growing Polish merchant acquirer PeP Newsdesk by Nets Group, one of Europe's leading payment providers, is now completed as the transaction has been approved by the relevant authorities.

Retail banks have displayed remarkable resilience and agility during the COVID-19 pandemic, moving many parts of their operations online. They have successfully enabled their employees to work from home, and have been able to serve their customers with very little disruption through digital channels. Providing a critical service that has kept our society functioning, these banks have ensured that payments are processed and loans are disbursed, that supply chains continue to function, and that customer information is protected.

OpenPayd, the API-led Banking-as-a-Service provider, today announced the launch of InstantFX, its FX-as-a-Service product that provides clients with real-time trading, putting an end to the need for batch processing.

Fueling the increasing demand for bikes, GoCardless, a leading fintech for recurring payments, has teamed up with Brompton, designers and makers of the iconic folding bike, to streamline the payments of ‘Brompton Bike Hire’.

Agicap, a French SaaS company that offers BFM software to small businesses, selected Salt Edge, leader in offering open banking solutions, to empower CEOs and CFOs to manage and monitor their companies’ cash flows on all bank accounts, in a single dashboard.

BPC Banking Technologies, the leading provider of digital payment solutions, has partnered with Pakistan’s Meezan Bank to deliver its digital transformation agenda starting with the upgrade of its payment infrastructure. BPC’s SmartVista platform has been selected by Meezan to deliver state-of-the-art issuing and acquiring services for the bank.

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a global Fintech leader, announced that PAG, one of the world’s largest Asia-focused investment groups, has chosen Broadridge as a cloud-based portfolio management technology provider. The enhancement will support PAG’s capabilities for its private debt operations.