Author: Charissa Swanepoel
Nairobi: TECHz Magazine – News Desk The Communications Authority of Kenya and the University of Nairobi’s Institute for Development Studies are reviewing preliminary findings from a national survey on child online protection. The initiative aims to provide empirical data on the digital experiences of Kenyan children to guide upcoming regulatory interventions. Recent UNICEF data highlights a severe crisis in digital safety for Kenyan minors. Between 2020 and 2025, over 1.29 million Kenyan children aged 12 to 17 experienced at least one form of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation or abuse. More than 995,000 minors encountered unwanted sexual content, while over 355,000 had…
Accra: TECHz Magazine – News Desk The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has officially launched a five-day AI and Robotics Summer Bootcamp in Accra for 100 students drawn from 19 schools. Designed to accelerate the country’s digital skills agenda, the initiative provides practical, hands-on exposure to artificial intelligence, coding, and emerging technologies. To ensure the training matches developmental needs, participants are grouped into four age-specific cohorts: Foundation (6 – 8 years) focusing on visual and block-based coding, Junior (9 – 11 years) covering foundational robotics, Intermediate (12 – 14 years) handling applied programming, and Senior…
Johannesburg: TECHz Magazine – News Desk South African Galaxy users now have a faster, card-free way to check out, as Samsung Wallet officially integrates QR code payments through a partnership with EFT Corporation’s Scan to Pay. This new feature aims to eliminate checkout friction by combining Samsung’s massive device ecosystem with one of the country’s largest alternative payment networks. The new functionality removes the need to dig for physical cards or wait for traditional terminal connections. It requires just three simple steps: users open their Samsung Wallet, scan a supported QR code at the point of sale, and authenticate the…
Riyadh: TECHz – News Desk NTT DATA, a global leader in AI, digital business and technology services, today announced its intention to launch the NTT DATA AI Factory Lab in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Designed to help organizations accelerate AI adoption, the lab will bring together NTT DATA’s full stack AI solutions and services expertise and technologies from leading ecosystem partners, including Cisco and NVIDIA, to help scale AI with confidence. Scheduled to open in September 2026, the AI Factory Lab will support executive briefings, AI strategy workshops and hands-on experiences that will help organizations identify high-impact AI use cases, validate…
Accra: TECHz Magazine – News Desk MTN Ghana and the University of Ghana have formalized a strategic Memorandum of Understanding designed to accelerate digital innovation and cultivate the next generation of tech talent. The partnership bridges industry and academia to strengthen Ghana’s overall digital capabilities, anchored by the launch of the MTN Ghana Tɛkyerɛma Pa Hackathon, an annual event hosted alongside the University’s Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab in Accra. Through this initiative, developers are tasked with building high-impact digital tools specifically designed for Ghanaian languages to promote digital inclusion for non-English speakers. To prepare participants, the program features rigorous online…
Kigali: TECHz Magazine – News Desk Smart Africa has emphasized the urgent need for enhanced public-private collaboration to forge a trusted, inclusive, and sustainable digital ecosystem globally and across the continent. Speaking at the second annual Global Digital Collaboration (GDC26) Conference in Geneva, Dr. Ralph Oyini Mbouna, Smart Africa’s Director of Digital Transformation and Services, advocated for a fundamental shift in how governments and technology enterprises partner with one another. A central theme of the organization’s current strategy is the transition from mere advisory relationships to substantive partnerships that result in genuine co-creation. To achieve this, governments and private enterprises…
Lilongwe: TECHz Magazine – News Desk The Government of Malawi has officially activated a new telecommunications tower in Kalira Village, Lilongwe Nyanja, marking its 36th operational site in an ongoing effort to bridge the digital divide. The launch falls under the Last Mile Rural Connectivity Project, a government initiative designed to bring critical mobile and internet access to underserved communities. Minister of Information and Digitalization, Shadric Namalomba, inaugurated the tower, framing the infrastructure as a driver for inclusion where distance and geography no longer restrict access to the modern economy. This expanded connectivity allows rural students to access the same…
Oman: TECHz Magazine – News Desk Omani startup DeepAstra has been designated as the exclusive sovereign AI partner for Z.ai in the Sultanate, securing the rights to distribute and operate Z.ai’s advanced GLM models locally. This strategic alliance bridges global AI capabilities with strict data sovereignty, addressing a critical market gap for Omani enterprises and government institutions. Through the Z Sovereign Partner program, Z.ai delegates its GLM models to trusted regional operators who deploy, certify, and distribute the technology within their native markets. As the exclusive operator for Oman, DeepAstra will manage this delivery, guaranteeing that all AI inference, data…
Riyadh: TECHz Magazine – News Desk Huawei has unveiled its strategy for accelerating artificial intelligence adoption across Saudi Arabia, emphasizing a full-stack approach that spans connectivity, cloud infrastructure, and computing at LEAP 2026. The technology giant noted that Saudi Arabia’s ICT market has grown significantly to $53 billion, representing an 89.5% increase since 2017. With the digital economy now contributing 16% of the national GDP and 5G network coverage reaching 86% of the Kingdom, Huawei states that a robust digital foundation is already in place. The company stressed that the next phase of digital transformation must move beyond simple AI…
Amsterdam: TECHz Magazine – News Desk Cloud-native banking platform provider Mambu has officially launched Intelligent Core, an open architecture designed to natively integrate agentic AI into core banking and payment systems. Moving away from the traditional approach of “bolting on” AI to legacy infrastructure, the platform allows AI agents to perform autonomous, real-time actions directly on the banking ledger. The architecture combines 15 years of composable banking evolution into a unified system connecting the foundational Mambu Core ledger, Mambu Payments for streamlined operations, and a new Mambu Agentic native intelligence layer. This intelligence layer powers automated banking workflows by utilizing…