iAfrikan BYTES iAfrikan Media

Unreasonably high data charges in South Africa have caused a stir; as part of the #DataMustFall campaign, millions of South Africans vented their annoyance on social media.
In order to address this broadband deficiency, Project Isizwe was established in 2013. Funded by the City of Tshwane, the project gave 600,000 monthly citizens 500MB per day via free WIFI access at 1050 public WIFI hotspots throughout the city.
After successfully piloting their ‘for-profit’ initiative Kayamandi, they were able to connect 891 families with affordable internet, at 100mbps for a low charge of R5 per day.
In this episode of iAfrikan BYTES, we speak with Alan Knott-Graig, Founder of Isizwe, about their disruptive fibre-to-shack business model.

Climate change poses significant threats to Africa, impacting vulnerable communities and exacerbating existing socio-economic inequalities. The innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation seeks to catalyze innovation by supporting projects and initiatives that directly address these challenges. Whether it’s enhancing agricultural practices, promoting renewable energy adoption, or implementing climate smart technologies, the fund aims to empower African startups and SMEs to become agents of change in the fight against climate change.
In this episode we are joined by Max Cuvellier who underlines that the fund is not limited to a specific sector, allowing entrepreneurs to explore various avenues for climate resilience and adaptation. By embracing a broad range of solutions, GSMA aims to stimulate cross-sector collaborations, foster knowledge sharing, and accelerate the development of comprehensive strategies to mitigate climate-related risks.

The RIA RAMP Index ranks South Africa as one of the mostly costly countries on the continent to buy data, hence any issues concerning the country’s data service industry are of national relevance. Much grandstanding and politicking on the matter between ICASA and broadband satellite internet company Starlink has occurred in the absence of a true and balanced explanation of the procedural and regulatory requirements to obtain an ISP license to operate as an internet service provider in South Africa. In this episode of iAfrikan BYTES, were joined by Lucien Pierce from ICT firm PPM attorneys, to understand what compliance considerations are required by the Regulator, to be granted an ISP license.

According to research from the University of the Western Cape School of Business and Finance, 70% to 80% of startups and small business in South Africa fail within five years, and just 1% of micro enterprises that began with less than five employees have expanded to employ 10 or more people. In this episode of iAfrikan BYTES, Heavy Chef founder Fred Roed joins us to discuss growth issues and how failure can be minimised. Heavy Chef, a platform for entrepreneurship education, provides recipes on how successful entrepreneurs succeeded in light of the difficult environment.

In this episode of iAfrikan BYTES, we are joined by journalist, Molebogeng Mokoka and senior research analyst, Euston Witbooi from the Centre for Analytics and Behavioral Change. We discuss standard techniques like keyword tracking, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, influencer identification, geolocation tracking, real-time monitoring, and data visualization. We also look at how social media listening tools track and monitor political narratives, lastly, they share insights and data on the National Shutdown Deep Dive Report and Xenophobia Social Media Analytics Report.

One notable contribution to the AI revolution in Africa comes from AI research Lab Lelapa AI. With a mandate to strengthen AI research capacity on the African continent, Lelapa AI aims to empower developers, researchers, and entrepreneurs to harness the potential of AI for positive impact. In this episode of iAfrikan BYTES, we are joined by Prof. Vukosi Marivate, Co-Founder and CTO of Lelapa AI and Chair of the Data Science for Social Impact Research Group at the University of Pretoria to talk about AI and what they are doing at Lelapa AI.