Author: Kaluka wanjala

Octagon Africa Financial Services has opened a new office in Mombasa as it expands its presence in Kenya’s coastal region and seeks to bring its financial services closer to customers. The office is located on the 9th Floor of Epic Business Centre and will serve individuals, families and businesses seeking services in retirement planning, employee benefits, insurance, investment and wealth management. “Mombasa is a fast-growing city in Kenya, and we would like to be part of this growth. The Coast region presents significant opportunities across different sectors, including trade, tourism, hospitality, logistics, manufacturing, oil, professional services and small and medium-sized…

Westcon-Comstor has appointed Donald Monne as Sales Manager for SADC. Monne will lead the company’s SADC sales team, working across a diverse group of markets to strengthen partner relationships, support business development and expand access to Westcon-Comstor’s solutions, services and vendor portfolio Monne brings extensive sales and business development experience across South Africa and the broader SADC region. During his almost 8-year-long career at Westcon-Comstor, he has played an important role in developing customer and partner relationships and has also served as Southern Africa Blueprint Champion, helping to drive strategic initiatives across the business. “Donald understands both the opportunities and…

African Banking Corporation (ABC Bank) has reduced its PesaLink transfer charges. The bank will now offer free transfers of up to KSh999 and a flat fee of KSh20 for transactions ranging from KSh1,000 to KSh999,999. The revised pricing is part of the Tuma Direct na KSh20 campaign. This is an industry-wide initiative led by Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL), which operates PesaLink, in collaboration with Kenyan banks. ABC Bank customers can access PesaLink through the bank’s ABConnect mobile banking platform and internet banking services. The bank said the pricing change forms part of a broader effort to encourage customers to…

Safaricom has launched a managed software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) service for businesses. It will offer branch packages starting at KES 9,500 per month on a 36-month contract. The service allows businesses that operate across multiple locations easily manage their connectivity through a single network. The monthly fee is inclusive of equipment, software, maintenance and 24/7 support. Connectivity charges are not included and are billed separately. SD-WAN combines different internet connections, including fibre, 4G, 5G and existing MPLS links. This allows businesses to switch traffic automatically to backup connections when a primary link fails. It also prioritises critical applications, such…

M-KOPA has marked its 15th anniversary after reaching 10 million customers since its founding in 2011, with the company reporting record revenue of $600 million for its 2025 financial year. The revenue figure represents a 45% increase from 2024, while three million new customers joined M-KOPA over the past 12 months across Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and South Africa. The company also expanded its workforce, adding about 200 full-time employees, a 9% increase in headcount, alongside more than 5,000 new sales agents. M-KOPA now employs more than 2,500 people and has created income opportunities for nearly 50,000 sales agents. “2025…

IBM and Red Hat today announced that Lightwell has identified and remediated more than 400 previously unknown vulnerabilities in widely used Java libraries. The companies also announced the general availability of Lightwell Clearinghouse, which allows enterprise customers to submit specific open source software dependencies for priority review and remediation. The milestone addresses a growing business risk. As autonomous AI agents become capable of combining several lower-risk software weaknesses into a more serious attack, companies need to do more than identify vulnerabilities. They need a practical way to develop, test and deploy fixes in the software that supports critical applications. Moving…

Pan-African payments infrastructure provider Kora says its new stablecoin payment rail can help reduce the cost of some cross-border transactions in Africa from as much as 2% to below 0.3%. This can be done while cutting settlement times from several days to about 30 minutes or less. We recently spoke to Kora’s CEO and founder Dickson Nsofor who told TechArena that the product will address the fragmentation and delays that affect cross-border payments across African markets. Nsofor says a typical cross-border transfer can take around three days and cost between 1% and 2%. “With One Rail, transactions between any country…

Four young Kenyan women have emerged as the overall winners of the third edition of the GirlCode Kenya Hackathon, held at Konza Technopolis. Mary Wangui, Linet Mugwanja, Aisha Barasa and Cynthia Chepkorir won the two-day competition with Naulisako. This is an AI-powered digital fare collection platform designed to streamline public transport payments. The platform also automates reconciliation for vehicle owners and generates sales records to improve financial tracking and transparency. The hackathon was organised by Absa Bank Kenya, GirlCode and the Technopolis Development Authority. It brought together 44 young women, including students, graduates, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs. Moses Okundi, Chief…

Eric Muriuki has joined Absa Group as Managing Executive for Pan-African Growth Strategy, Platforms & Digital Ventures. This comes after his departure from NCBA Group. At NCBA, he led the LOOP digital financial services business. Muriuki was involved in the development of a number of products that have shaped mobile payments, savings and digital lending in Kenya. His helped design the trust-account architecture behind Safaricom’s M-Pesa electronic value issuance in 2007. He also spearheaded the development of M-Shwari, the mobile savings and micro-credit service that was launched in 2012. Muriuki was also involved with the creation of Fuliza back in…

Dan Kwach has returned to Cassava Technologies. He will be taking up a new role as Executive for AI Data Centres under Africa Data Centres. Kwach announced the move on LinkedIn. This announcement comes less than a year after he announced his departure from Africa Data Centres after a 19-year career with the organisation. We reported on this back in December 2025.  Kwach previously served as Managing Director for the East Africa region. He was involved in the growth of Africa Data Centres and the wider digital infrastructure ecosystem in the region. Kwach said his return comes as artificial intelligence…