IT News Africa: Top Stories of the Week

The technology sector has been buzzing this week. While many consumers are enjoying Netflix across Africa, the company has revealed that it will be taking steps in order to prevent its customers from streaming content that’s only available outside their own country.

Also making waves in the headlines this week was the All-female Nigerian startup, DIYlaw.ng. DIYlaw.ng recently won the Innovating Justice Award for the SME Empowerment Innovation Challenge for East and West Africa.

Whilst flying cars were not present at CES 2016, this year, there was a lot of interest surrounding the Ehang-184 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV). IT News Africa takes an in-depth look at the fully autonomous drone below.

The team at IT News Africa wishes all our reader’s a very happy and successful 2016.

News

Nigeria: Telecom subscriber base on the rise
Nigeria’s telecommunications operators reported an 11.9 percent rise in the year to September 2015 in their subscriber figures, according to statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Read More.

Netflix to stop customers from bypassing country restrictions
David Fullagar, Vice President of Content Delivery Architecture at Netflix, has revealed that the company will be taking steps in order to prevent customers from streaming content that’s only available outside their own country. Read More.

Nigeria: Uber to accept cash payments
Uber will launch a cash payment experiment in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday January 18, 2016. The report reveals that, in order to pay via cash, Uber app users can now select the cash payment option within the app. Once at their destination, the Uber user will simply hand over the fair to the driver. Read More.

Sony Mobile appoints new country manager for South Africa
Sony Mobile has revealed the appointment of Christian Haghofer as the new Sony Mobile South Africa Country Manager. Read More.

National Bank & Airtel Kenya ink major pact to expand reach
National Bank of Kenya and Airtel Kenya have announced the opening of their distribution networks to offer each other’s services in a major partnership agreement geared at expanding reach of services. Read More.

South Africa: ShowMax and MWEB ink partnership
Back in 2015 Subscription Video On Demand service (SVOD) ShowMax entered into the South African market. At launch, ShowMax revealed that it had a content catalogue that totaled more than 11,000 hours of video content, which included local African content as well as international content. Read More.

All-female Nigerian startup takes top prize in Netherlands
DIYlaw.ng, a Nigerian female founded technology company, recently won the Innovating Justice Award for the SME Empowerment Innovation Challenge for East and West Africa – A challenge which was organised by The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL). Read More.

World’s First Passenger Drone: Details Emerge
Whilst flying cars were not present at CES 2016 there was a lot of interest surrounding the Ehang-184 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV). Read More.

Top Opinions & Features

Companies must embrace BYOD strategically
Research shows that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is not only here to stay, but will, in fact, grow in significance in next few years. Human Capital Management and HR experts at CRS Technologies believe that businesses ought to conduct a thorough cost and needs analysis before applying a strategy. Read More.

Top Predictions for FinTech, Mobile Money & Financial Inclusion in 2016
Alix Murphy, Senior Mobile Analyst at global money transfer app WorldRemit, has put together her top 3 predictions for Mobile Money, FinTech and financial inclusion in 2016. Read More.

What does 2016 hold for the technology landscape?
It’s that time again – when we look back at the year that has passed and throw our predictions into the ring for what lies ahead. If anything was clear in 2015, it’s that advancements in technology showed no signs of slowing down. Apple Pay launched in the UK, smart watches took off and 3D printers were made affordable for the average consumer to use – to name just a few innovations. Read More.

Top Video Interviews

How will the Internet of Things benefit Africa?
David Meads leads Cisco’s business operations across the African continent. In his role he is responsible for defining Cisco’s go‐to‐market strategy across the African continent and for the field execution of that strategy. Watch the video interview here.

Security is a critical part of the Internet of Things
Paolo Campoli is the ME&A Global SP leader and SP Sales CTO at Cisco. His responsibilities include direct Sales leadership for Global Service Providers accounts in the ME&A region, managing the entire Solution sales lifecycle and developing for the future. Watch the video interview here.

Gadgets and Gaming

PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup January 2016
It’s officially 2016, and with the New Year comes a new set of free games for the PlayStation Plus Free Game Lineup for January 2016. Read More.

Top 25 Most Anticipated Upcoming Games of 2016
Last year was a great year for gaming. We saw the launch of some phenomenal titles such as Batman: Arkham Knight, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout 4, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

While 2015 was an exceptionally great year in the world of gaming, we will now take a look at some of the most promising games that 2016 will have to offer. The list of the Top 25 Most Anticipated Upcoming Games of 2016 can be found here; however, be sure to check out our top 30 video games of 2015 here.

Virtual reality will have its first billion dollar year in 2016
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited has predicted that virtual reality (VR) will have its first billion dollar year in 2016, with about US$700 million in hardware sales, and the remainder from content. Read More.

Darryl Linington

Follow @Darryl Linington on Twitter