Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 06 | Page 20

PROJECT LATEST PROJECT LATEST LATEST REGIONAL PROJECT UPDATE ETHIOPIA GHANA ETHIOPIA GHANA Mastercard and digital service provider, Kifiya, have partnered to introduce a simple, secure and convenient digital solution that will ultimately allow citizens to pay for all bills in one location in Ethiopia. The partnership will impact millions of Ethiopian citizens living abroad, as well as those living in the East African country. REDAVIA, a global market leader of cost-effective rental solar power for businesses and communities, has opened its first office and legal entity in Accra, the capital of Ghana, to accommodate its growth plans and leverage West Africa’s manifold business opportunities. REDAVIA’s decision is based on its three-pronged strategy for a long-term involvement in the country. Firstly, REDAVIA ensures pre-financing of entire solar farms to make it both affordable and predictable for customers through monthly lease payments. Secondly, it delivers German-engineered technology at the heart of its containerised, easy to deploy solar farms. And last but not least, REDAVIA, through its Academy, ensures an ongoing knowledge transfer around renewable solar power to Ghanaian students and professionals. The digital solution, accessible on computer and mobile devices, will further streamline the experience of paying for bills by letting citizens both within and outside the country’s borders make immediate digital payments – a major benefit for citizens of Ethiopia, which has one of the continent’s highest proportions of citizens living outside the country. SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA South Africa Government has announced to decisively embrace Microsoft’s Cloud Productivity (Office 365). CEO of the State IT Agency (SITA), Dr Setumo Mohapi, confirmed a master agreement with Microsoft to standardise on Office 365 across all government departments and institutions. ZAMBIA InfraCo Africa and Standard Microgrid Initiatives (Pty) Ltd (SM) have signed a Convertible Loan Agreement for the phased disbursement of up to US$3.5million. In parallel, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) also awarded SM a US$0.75million grant to support project preparation services. Together, these commitments will fund the deployment of distributed solar power services across Zambia. Mohapi’s announcement represents a concise and progressive approach to cloud migration and eradicates much of the hesitancy that may have been holding back departments’ cloud journeys. Now, with the full backing of SITA’s framework agreement, they can very quickly roll- out Office 365 to their teams. Using the loan committed by InfraCo Africa, SM will initially build six solar photovoltaic (PV) micro-grids in rural and peri-urban areas before rapidly expanding its distributed power service by further deploying >100 units. Each 10kW micro-grid is capable of delivering clean, reliable energy for around 150 customers and will offer competitively-priced power to underserved communities across Zambia. Government and its technology partners can now build new services within the cloud, making it available to staff and citizens at a faster pace and lower cost. ZAMBIA 20 20 INTELLIGENTCIO INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com www.intelligentcio.com www.intelligentcio.com www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO INTELLIGENTCIO 21 21