Mastercard is driving digital payment innovation across Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon through strategic partnerships, advanced technologies like tokenisation, and fintech collaborations. The company is enhancing financial inclusion, promoting secure transactions, and strengthening cybersecurity, ensuring a resilient digital payment ecosystem while contributing to the region’s economic growth and transformation.
PMI and ITU have signed an agreement to enhance project governance, implementation, and skill development in ITU’s global initiatives. This partnership focuses on addressing Africa’s connectivity gaps, aligning PMI’s project management expertise with ITU’s mission to promote digital inclusion and bridge connectivity challenges in underserved regions.
Egypt has unveiled its updated National AI Strategy for 2025–2030, aiming to become a regional AI leader in the Middle East and Africa. The strategy focuses on key areas like governance, technology, and talent, with plans to grow AI’s GDP contribution to $42.7 billion by 2030 and foster AI companies and experts.
At the World Economic Forum, experts discussed the “AI divide” in developing countries, emphasizing challenges such as limited energy, computing power, and talent. Deemah Al-Yahya stressed the need for collaboration between the public and private sectors to bridge the gap, while promoting access to emerging technologies through digital assets.
Telecom Egypt, in partnership with Cisco, has activated a high-capacity subsea link on the 2Africa subsea cable, connecting Egypt to France via Italy. This project enhances network efficiency, boosts international traffic capacity, and supports bandwidth-intensive services like AI and cloud computing, improving connectivity across the Mediterranean.
Veon is in talks with Starlink to expand satellite-powered cellular services to Bangladesh through its subsidiary, Banglalink. The partnership aims to provide connectivity in underserved areas where terrestrial networks fail, such as during floods or energy shortages. This expansion is part of Veon’s broader strategy to serve emerging markets.
Ericsson has partnered with Grameenphone to enhance telecom services in Bangladesh, expanding Business Support Systems (BSS) and introducing AI-powered features. This collaboration aims to improve service delivery, reduce turnaround times, and support Grameenphone’s digital transformation, setting a global benchmark for telecom operations.
SeamlessHR, a Nigerian HR tech startup, has raised $9 million in funding, bringing its total to $20 million. This investment, backed by the Gates Foundation and Helios Digital Ventures, will help the company expand across Africa, enhance workforce productivity, and provide financial security for employees through embedded finance tools.
Bahrain has launched the Bahrain Skills and Gender Parity Accelerator in collaboration with the World Economic Forum to close the gender skills gap in high-growth industries. The initiative will help increase the participation of Bahraini workers and support the country’s digital transformation and gender equality efforts.
Bahrain’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce has launched a campaign to regulate e-commerce businesses, requiring registration of e-store links, secure payment methods, clear return policies, and timely deliveries. Non-compliance will lead to legal consequences, aiming to protect consumers, promote fair competition, and boost the country’s digital economy.
