Mobile tech empowers African farmers

Thousands of small farmers in Africa will be able to negotiate better prices for their crops thanks to real-time market data sent to their mobile phones, reports Reuters Africa.

The mobile phone application that's being piloted in northern Ghana, sends farmers SMSes with market data used to monitor prices, crop demand, weather and the location of seeds and fertilisers, according to Esoko - the software company that built the application.

The International Finance Corporation and Soros Economic Development Fund have invested $2.5 million in the company, which they think will help revolutionise the terms of trade for small-scale agriculture on the continent.

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) has received approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to deploy mobile banking on its platform, states All Africa.com.

The UBA has introduced Africash, a mobile payment solution that aims to target 70% (about 54 million) non-banking Nigerians.

The CBN has also granted UBA the license to open its operations in the Republic of Congo. This would bring to 20 the number of countries UBA is present in addition to it's over 700 branches in Nigeria.

O3b Networks has secured $1.2 billion in funding from banks and investors to plough into its global satellite constellation, says Tech Eye.net.

This is expected to benefit African countries, which are still playing broadband catch-up, according to the UN.

O3b is planning to abolish the issue of latency that has hampered satellite broadband by deploying its satellites closer to Earth.