NEWS
Internet Society Foundation announces grants
for projects that promote the Internet
T
he new Internet Society Foundation has issued its first set of
medium and large grants to 13 ground-breaking projects that
seek to spread the benefits of the Internet around the world. The
projects in Africa selected for grants are:
• US$30,000 to create Wi-Fi access points and an off-the-grid
Media Centre within the Mamaila Tribal Authority in South Africa.
The project will also build community capacity through training
on cybersecurity, content development, entrepreneurship and
the construction, operation and maintenance of community
networks. This aims to empower unemployed youth to organise
themselves into cooperatives to advance their socio-economic
aspirations and expand the planned network infrastructure.
• US$12,322 will go towards creating community networks
for 5,000 people in three remote farming communities and
awareness-raising in Madagascar. The project will also provide
technical training and basic Internet skills to a group of people
who will train others to use the Internet to capture practical
information for their economic development (such as on
weather forecasts that can impact harvests and the prices of the
agricultural products they sell).
• US$30,000 to generate reliable statistical data on Internet use
in Mali, in particular on the use or misuse of social media, which
has become popular in both rural and urban areas. Most existing
data has been produced by telecoms operators, for commercial
ends, and results have not been made widely accessible. The
results of this project, however, will be widely available through its
publication and dissemination.
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MTN Nigeria progresses on its Fintech strategy
M
TN Nigeria has announced that its
subsidiary, Yello Digital Financial
Services Limited (YDTS), has been granted
a full Super-Agent Licence by the Central
Bank of Nigeria. The licence will enable
MTN to convert its existing airtime agents
and recruit other small businesses to
distribute financial services.
YDFS received approval in principle for its
Super-Agent Licence in December 2018
and has been conducting a pilot project
since then to meet the conditions of a full
licence. The successful pilot has now led to
the granting of a full licence under which
YDFS will distribute financial services to
all Nigerians.
MTN CEO Ferdi Moolman said: “We are
very pleased that YDFS has been granted
a Super-Agent Licence, which enables us to
extend access to financial services to a much
broader group of Nigerians. This forms part
of our commitment to contribute towards
the achievement of Nigeria’s financial
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INTELLIGENTCIO
inclusion goals. Through the network
established by YDFS, MTN is in a position to
broaden the availability of financial services
for the under-served across the country.
This marks a very important first step in
leveraging our infrastructure to scale our
Fintech initiatives. We have also applied for
a Payment Service Bank Licence, which will
enable us in time to offer a broader and
deeper range of financial services to those
communities and we remain hopeful we will
receive approval shortly.”
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