NEWS
European Investment Bank , Bandwidth and Cloud Services , partner to launch fibre network in DRC
$ 10 million quasi-equity , investment from EIB Global , the EIB ’ s arm dedicated to international partnerships and development finance . The financing package addresses BCS ’ s immediate funding needs to support their fast and long-term growth .
The continued partnership with EIB means BCS can move forward with its optic expansion plans to build over 20,000 kilometres of digital infrastructure out of which 12,000 kilometres are in DRC . This will go a long way to ensure implementation of the MoU between the Government of DRC and BCS to connect over 1,900 schools , 1,640 public hospitals and government institutions along the BCS backbone and metro fibre infrastructure .
More than 2.5 million people living in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , DRC will benefit from faster , cheaper and more reliable digital connectivity thanks to new fibre-optic network investment being rolled out by Bandwidth and Cloud Services Group , BCS and backed by the European Investment Bank , EIB .
The EIB and BCS signed warrants agreement that will allow BCS to move forward with their plans to install a new fibre-optic backbone in the eastern regions of the DRC . The warrants agreement follows a
The Government of DRC has in return agreed to waive the fibre licence fee per kilometre and provide rights of way on all public infrastructure – railroad , electricity poles , rivers and lakes , in exchange .
The fibre-optic network will transform more than 2.5 million Congolese lives , bringing high-speed internet to critical facilities such as hospitals and schools . Through Global Gateway , the EU will continue supporting partner countries in Central Africa level-up their digital network , to bring more opportunities for families and businesses alike .
Cellulant ’ s payment service solution provider licence renewed by Central Bank of Nigeria
The Central Bank of Nigeria , has renewed Cellulant ’ s Payment
Service Solution Provider License in Nigeria . This license enables Cellulant , to continue providing online and offline payment solutions , including collections , check-out , biller aggregation , and pay out services securely to thousands of businesses across Nigeria .
Cellulant ’ s digital payments platform , Tingg , enables businesses to seamlessly accept and make payments offline and online . A single integrated digital payments solution , Tingg addresses the complex needs of managing payments by simplifying the payment experience for the end-user and providing tools and processes for a merchant to manage their collections from a single dashboard .
Nigerian consumers have different payment options , including card , mobile money , bank transfer and cash- with volatile currency fluctuations and no single settlement framework . As a result , the demand for digital payments continues to increase . Roughly 50 % of retail customers request to pay for their purchases using digital payment options .
However , this demand presents several challenges for most merchants who might not always support the customer ’ s preferred payment method , resulting in merchants having to enable multiple
Frances Diribe , Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer , Cellulant
solutions to support multiple wallets and varying processes for settlement and reversals for a merchant .
Tingg solves these challenges by delivering a single solution to accept all digital payment methods , Bank Transfers , USSD payments , Cards and Mobile Money maintained with the highest compliance and security standards . p
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