Hi, welcome to Tech This Evening, an After-Work Tech Newsletter from Techparley Africa. Sure, there is a lot to unpack right now. Sit back, while I walk you through.
Top Story: Smart Africa and Certa Foundation Partner to Advance AI Governance and Digital Policy Across Africa
The Smart Africa Secretariat has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Certa Foundation to advance digital governance, innovation policy and regulatory capacity across the continent, marking a significant step towards implementing the goals of the Africa AI Declaration.
The partnership seeks to help African governments and institutions better harness artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to drive economic growth, strengthen governance structures and improve digital competitiveness.
Officials from both organisations say the collaboration will provide targeted technical support for policymakers, regulators and public institutions, while also nurturing a new generation of youth policymakers who can shape the continent’s digital future.
“Digital transformation cannot succeed without strong governance. Through this partnership with Certa Foundation, Smart Africa is strengthening Africa’s capacity to design policies and regulatory frameworks that will shape our digital future,” said Lacina Koné, Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Smart Africa.
“Our strategic partnership with Smart Africa is a huge step in the journey to digital sovereignty. The research we published on Data Embassies was a starting point on our roadmap. This joint-effort partnership is where that work becomes real. Africa does not need to wait for someone else to build its digital future,” said Florida Kabasinga, Founder and Executive Director, Certa Foundation.
Other Tech News Stories You Should Read:
Atlancis, EverseTech, and iXAfrica Launches Servernah Cloud to Power Local AI Innovation in Kenya. Read now.
Denodo Introduces New Data Platform to Help Enterprises Scale Generative and Agentic AI. Read now.
Wadhwani AI Global and Smart Africa Partner to Advance Responsible AI Adoption Across Africa.Read now.
On Startup Spotlight:
RateGain and Juspay Partner to Launch RG Pay and Offer Scalable AI Payment Solutions for Travel Startups
Global travel technology firm, RateGain Travel Technologies Limited has partnered with payments infrastructure provider, Juspay to power RG Pay, an embedded financial technology platform designed for the travel and hospitality sector.
The collaboration aims to help travel businesses improve checkout conversions, support a broader range of local payment methods, and deliver smoother booking experiences for travellers around the world.
“We are excited to partner with RateGain to demonstrate how high-performance payment technology can co-create a new benchmark for the travel industry. RG Pay bridges the gap between institutional scale and the agility of modern technology, ensuring that hotels can offer the same seamless, secure checkout experience that the world’s largest digital enterprises rely on,” said Ishan Sharma, head of sales and business development at Juspay.
“By integrating Juspay’s globally scalable orchestration infrastructure and AI-powered routing intelligence into our ecosystem as a launch Partner, we are strengthening the foundation of payments in travel, aligning discovery, distribution, conversion, and transaction performance within a unified architecture for travel brands worldwide,” Parijat Tiwari, executive vice-president and general manager for distribution at RateGain, said.
Quadri Adejumo brings you all the details. Read here.
Also Read:
Pan-African Agridex Unveils ‘LOAM’ Neobank Platform to Transform Cross-Border Commodity Trade. Yakub Abdulrasheed brings us the details, here.
Quote of the Day:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke.
Thank you for joining me yet again this evening. Stay safe, and see you tomorrow for the next tech newsletter.
Best, Quadri
