Author: Kaluka wanjala

Yellow Card has appointed Ross Everett as its new Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Everett brings experience across financial services, banking and technology companies. His previous roles include Group Financial Controller at digital bank Monzo, as well as positions at Deutsche Bank, Barclays and KPMG. At Yellow Card, Everett will oversee the company’s global finance function, including financial strategy, planning and performance, reporting, treasury, capital management and financial governance. “Yellow Card has built world-class infrastructure to solve a problem every cross-border business understands, moving money quickly, cheaply and reliably,” said Ross Everett. “Having spent a significant part of my career…

Kenya Airways is collaborating with Sabre and Branchspace in rebuilding how customers book, manage and experience their travel, with a new platform that brings more tailored fares and ancillary options, easier bundling of a trip’s components, a smoother mobile and digital booking journey, and faster airport check-in. Customers and members of the Asante Rewards programme can expect quicker, more intuitive self-service tools, an upgraded rewards experience, and improved real-time rebooking during disruptions when plans change. Kenya Airways has selected Sabre to replace the core reservations and ticketing platform that has run the airline’s bookings, inventory and airport check-in for more…

NETSCOUT has announced Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectivity for its Omnis™ AI Insights solution. The new capability gives AI assistants and agents on-demand access to AI-ready Smart Data, NETSCOUT’s real-time operational evidence, providing the trusted context they need to support more accurate and informed decisions. AI-ready Smart Data builds on NETSCOUT’s patented Adaptive Service Intelligence™ (ASI) technology, using granular data to provide a richer, more scalable source of contextual network intelligence. NETSCOUT performs early semantic extraction and context optimisation at source, transforming ASI data into compact, AI-ready Smart Data before it enters downstream systems. Omnis Sensor and Omnis Streamer are key components of NETSCOUT’s Omnis AI Insights solution, moving intelligence closer to the…

Verto has partnered with Visa to launch a multi-currency corporate card aimed at helping African businesses reduce foreign exchange costs and manage international spending more efficiently. The Verto Card allows businesses to spend directly from their existing Verto multi-currency wallets without first moving funds between accounts or converting currencies. Businesses can hold and spend in 11 currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, CAD, AUD, NZD, NOK and SEK. The card provides access to more than 160 additional currencies and offers zero FX markups on 10 major currencies. The card is targeted at businesses with international operations. These include importers,…

Africa Go Green Fund (AGG), a climate-focused debt fund managed by Cygnum Capital, has increased its financing commitment to electric mobility company Spiro by $18 million. This brings its total commitment to the company to $36 million. The additional financing builds on an $18 million debt facility closed in December 2025, alongside a $7 million commitment from Nithio. Spiro says it has deployed more than 135,000 electric motorcycles and completed more than 50 million battery swaps across its markets as of September 2026. The new financing will support the deployment of additional electric motorcycles and expansion of Spiro’s battery-swapping infrastructure…

NCBA Group has introduced a fully integrated private motor insurance solution on the LOOP App, enabling customers to compare quotes, complete underwriting, purchase cover, renew policies and access policy documents within a single platform. Developed through a collaboration between NCBA Group subsidiaries LOOP DFS and NCBA Insurance, the solution reflects the Group’s commitment to simplifying financial services through technology and creating seamless customer experiences across its digital ecosystem. The launch underscores NCBA Group’s commitment to embedding additional financial services within digital channels that customers already use. Beyond enhancing convenience, the initiative supports broader efforts to increase insurance uptake in Kenya,…

Vertiv has announced a distribution partnership with Pinnacle ICT, Africa’s leading information, communications technology company, extending the availability of Vertiv’s power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions portfolio across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. “Our distribution partnership with Pinnacle ICT extends the reach of Vertiv’s portfolio through a well-established channel organisation with the technical expertise, market presence and partner ecosystem needed to help customers across the region to enable current and future digitalisation needs,” explains Henry Myburgh, senior regional account manager: Southern Africa at Vertiv. The distribution partnership covers traditional channel partners, systems integrators, managed service providers and enterprise customers, while also making selected…

ARC Ride is ready to take its battery-swapping model beyond Nairobi after securing $33.3 million in funding. This is one of the highest amounts raised in the EV space in Kenya recently.  The funding will be used to expand ARC Ride’s electric motorcycle fleet, deploy battery-swapping infrastructure and even support expansion into Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa. The company is now focused on building the infrastructure that keeps those motorcycles moving. ARC Ride founder and CEO Jo Hurst-Croft told TechArena that the company is targeting around 5,000 electric motorcycles within each market ecosystem. The new funding will initially support…

The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) is preparing to shift its focus from building its continental payments network to driving wider adoption and transaction growth from 2027. In Kenya, Pesalink partnered with PAPSS to enable instant cross-border payments in local currencies. PAPSS CEO Mike Ogbalu III said the platform now operates in more than 30 African countries across all five regions of the continent. The network connects 24 national and regional central banks, more than 200 commercial banks and payment service providers and 16 switches. PAPSS also has a termination footprint covering more than 300 financial institutions made possible…

Over the last couple of years, we have seen organisations explore Artificial Intelligence across several industries, including financial services, telecommunications, government, education and other industries. I recently had a chance to sat down with technology leaders from Red Hat and Kenyan systems integrator Copy Cat who say the biggest challenge with AI is everything that has to come before and around it, and not just about access to AI itself, Data, infrastructure, governance, security, skills and business processes all determine whether an AI initiative will be a beneficial business tool or just another technology experiment. If a business is investing…