TechCabal Daily – E-waste piles 21% higher in five years

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Already this year, with supply chain disruptions and global lockdowns to stall the spread of the coronavirus, sales of electronics across the globe suffered marked declines.

However

, in many parts of Asia and the US, online sales for smartphones, for instance, soared in the first four months of the year. In Africa where a combination of lockdowns and economic factors caused a decline in smartphone purchases, entry-level and mid-range smartphone manufacturers like Transsion continue to record remarkable sales.

In countries like Nigeria, e-waste disposalis a huge challenge. Informal sector players and lack of awareness mean that old phones and electronics end up in landfills where incineration and leeching causes their harmful constituent materials to end up in soil, water and eventually food.

Asia remains the continent with the most e-waste generated while Africa and Oceania come in at the last two spots having generated 2.9 Mt and 0.7 Mt respectively in 2019.

MFS Africa, a mobile payments hub connecting banks, money transfer and telecom network operators, has acquired Beyonic, a Uganda-based digital payments company. Beyonic’s last-mile digital payments framework makes for easy mobile payment for corporates, startups and SMEs and their clientele includes  motorcycle-hailing company Safeboda, and the South African bank.

The acquisition creates a larger, more versatile company that fuses “interoperability between digital storers of value and enterprise  payments”.


Alex has more detail about the acquisition and what the new company’s operations will look like moving forward.