(May 18): Vodacom Group Ltd. is expanding its financial and e-commerce services in South Africa through a partnership with AliPay, seeking to accelerate growth in a market hampered by a lack of new broadband spectrum.
Africa’s largest wireless carrier by market value has developed a so-called super-app with the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. company, which will allow customers to take out loans and shop online as well as make standard mobile payments, according to a statement Tuesday. The service will be available in coming weeks.
“The world is moving toward e-commerce, and while leveraging off what we already have we also need to grow that side,” Vodacom Chief Executive Officer Shameel Joosub said on a call with reporters.
Vodacom, Alibaba Look to Boost South Africa Sales With Super-App
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Vodacom and Alibaba want to boost South Africa sales
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Ethiopia Pledges to Allow Mobile Money for New Telecom Entrants
Samuel Gebre and Loni Prinsloo, Bloomberg News MTN mobile money payment service ata kiosk. , Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) Ethiopia has pledged to allow prospective owners of new telecom licenses to offer mobile-banking services at some point after entering the market, according to people familiar with the matter.
The initial exclusion of mobile money from the auction process had caused wireless carriers to hesitate over bidding for the new spectrum and influenced the amount they were prepared to offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is ongoing. The state also backtracked on an insistence that new entrants rent infrastructure such as telecom towers from state-owned Ethio Telecom indefinitely, they said.
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January 29 2021, 7:22 AM
(Bloomberg) Indian tycoon Kumar Mangalam Birlaâs $46-billion metals-to-telecommunications conglomerate is reviving investments, betting Indiaâs economy will soon bounce back from a recession induced by the pandemic.
(Bloomberg) Indian tycoon Kumar Mangalam Birlaâs $46-billion metals-to-telecommunications conglomerate is reviving investments, betting Indiaâs economy will soon bounce back from a recession induced by the pandemic.
As the vaccines roll out, and governments and central banks provide stimulus, India will be among economies to rise above pre-pandemic levels, the billionaire said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday. His Aditya Birla Group has already unveiled plans to plow in about $2.4 billion across businesses in the past few weeks, months after putting on hold some of its expansion programs on account of the Covid-related lockdowns.