mobile phone

Pan-African mobile operator MTN has launched its Mobile Money offering in Ghana, allowing users in the west African country to perform a range of basic financial transactions over their phones without having to have bank accounts.

Internet giant Google is targeting Africa's mobile phone users with the introduction, starting in Uganda, of Google SMS, a suite of mobile applications which will allow people to access news, information and advice on health, agriculture, weather, sport and more via SMS (text).

The Internet has helped launch several music careers, but access to the medium is limited – so a South African hip-hop group has made use of other inexpensive yet effective technology to introduce their talent to the world.

South African instant messaging service MXit has attracted more than three million users in under two years. Now, with buy-in from local media giant Naspers, the company is setting its sights on the international market.

Amid debate on growing cellphone usage in schools, South Africa's Meraka Institute is piloting a project that makes use of innovative applications to turn the handheld devices into instruments of learning.

South African company IncuBeta wasted little time in taking the gap offered by keyword-sensitive advertising on the internet's biggest search engine. Founded in 2003, the firm already has 50 staff, offices in SA and London, turnover of over R50-million a year - and, now, venture capital backing for highly ambitious growth plans.

HBD, the venture capital firm created by internet billionaire Mark Shuttleworth, has launched its second fund, worth R150-million, to finance young South African businesses that develop products with global potential.

South African start-up company Red Five Labs has developed pioneering technology that overcomes the incompatibility between the two major smartphone programming languages, allowing Microsoft .NET applications to run unchanged on Symbian OS powered mobile phones.