The Confederations Cup, which was hosted in South Africa, showcased the best Information Technology (IT) infrastructure for a tournament of this nature and stature, and all the information was available in real-time, says Rich Mkhondo, Chief Communications Officer of the Local Organising Committee (LOC).
He adds that a comprehensive power backup plan was developed and put in place to ensure no downtime was experienced at any point during the tournament.
The plan, which included Eskom and local power distributors at every venue location, was put in place to ensure the key areas backed up included the TV compound, stadium lighting, stadium media centre, and key IT systems and networks.
Mkhondo notes the backup provided by Sentech performed successfully during the event. Sentech provided satellite backup for the event, mainly to the telecommunications networks and to ensure TV continuity. ICASA provided the LOC with the necessary frequencies and also provided technical support to monitor frequencies during the event and to detect interference and usage of illegal equipment, states Mkhondo. Read the rest of this entry »
A pledge by Nigeria’s new central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, to take tough action to clean up the financial sector has triggered a sharp sell-off on the Nigerian Stock Exchange amid fears he may force banks to declare big losses.
According to sources, France’s Vivendi SA has made an offer to purchase Zain’s African division. In addition to Vivendi’s offer, Zain has also received offers from other major telecommunications firms.
Etisalat Nigeria, the country’s newest GSM mobile network operator, has announced that it has passed the one million subscriber mark – less than nine months after the company launched its services in Nigeria.
Zain and Western Union are to work together to deliver mobile money transfer services in countries in Africa and the Middle East through Zain’s new Zap platform. The Zap service provides Zain customers access to a full range of transactional services from their mobile phones. Customers can interact with select bank accounts, top-up or transfer airtime, and move money to businesses, friends and family. The service allows customers to pay bills such as electricity, and can even be used to settle grocery bills in the supermarket.
Lamido Sanusi, the new governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, lays out his agenda to restore confidence in Nigeria’s banking sector, in an interview with Matthew Green, the FT’s West Africa correspondent, on June 18. 
The new governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, has indicated that the CBN is prepared to lift the ban on foreign ownership of Nigerian banks, saying that this could allow fresh capital and risk management expertise into the sector. Currently, the CBN must approve any acquisition of 5% or more of a Nigerian bank by a foreign firm.
Global telecommunications firm sees Kenya, Angola, and Uganda as the next high growth markets as it aims to alter enterprises’ perceptions of the continent. 
Mobile financial services in the developing world could be worth $5bn by 2012, say analysts. The number of people with access to a mobile phone, but no bank account, would rise to 1.7 billion in 2012. It is also expected that more than one in five will use their mobile to access banking services, creating a market worth up to $5bn (£3.05bn).
