The Mall of Africa has utilised KaChing to enable its customers to pay for parking.
KaChing allows parking customers to use flexible payment options such as pre-pay, top up and credit card payment to securely pay for their parking.
The system uses automatic number plate recognition cameras and smartphone app technology to make it possible for people to pay without the use of a ticket or tangible money.
The South African parking technology provider was launched in 2016.
KaChing currently operates in Johannesburg at Melrose Arch, Morningside Shopping Centre, Thrupps, Campus Square and the Pavilion Shopping Centre, while 10 more facilities will be operational soon across Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
Africa’s Top 10 Technological Advanced Countries – Report
Seychelles is Africa’s most technologically advanced African country followed by South Africa and Mauritius, according to the Africa Country Benchmark Report (ACBR) for 2017.
The report amalgamates business and economic indexes to create an inclusive and holistic view of each African country’s performance. Within these sectors, performance in individual fields is also gauged.
For achievement in technology, ACBR assessed performances on indexes such as the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business, the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report, Cornell University’s Global Innovation Index, the WWWF’s Web Index and others.
Making up the rest of the top 10 are Cape Verde, Tunisia, Swaziland, Egypt, Namibia, Botswana and Morocco.
According to the report, technological advancement in Africa favours small, relatively affluent countries, where political stability has been achieved, and larger countries that have a long history of industrialisation and established foreign markets for their industrial exports.
Cape Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles have established thriving economies on their islands, safeguarded from mainland warfare, refugees, terrorists and insurgencies by oceans. Under democratic governments, policies have been established to promote the information and communications technology sector, giving tax breaks and other incentives to foreign investors. Although small in population, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland enjoy the peace of the Southern Africa region and have established industrial parks and other incentives to increase their countries’ technological capacities.
Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia have been exporting industrial goods to the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East for decades and have succeeded in staying competitive by embracing technological advances. Their relatively affluent populations have spawned sophisticated consumers who demand the best of the latest gadgets, much of which is assembled locally. Such manufacturing requires skills training and an expanded, technologically empowered workforce.
Morocco and South Africa excel in auto manufacturing, which is particularly demanding in terms of technology. Egypt and Tunisia’s widespread communications technologies were put to use during the Arab Spring revolutions that toppled dictators using social media. Sub-Saharan Africa’s dictators have sought to suppress social media ever since but are unable to stem the tide of the continent’s rising technological capabilities.
African Business Community Commits To Invest In Skills For Employment And Job Creation For Youth At “Africa Talks Jobs” Conference
More than 400 representatives of youth, business, education practitioners and policy-making from 44 countries across the African continent as well as European partners have called for improving job perspectives of the African Youth through employment oriented education and skills development. The call was made at the recently concluded “Africa Talks Jobs” (ATJ) conference held at the African Union Commission (AUC) headquarters in Addis Ababa. Recommendations developed at the conference will be brought to the upcoming 5th AU-EU Summit in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The recommendations call for a stronger engagement of the African business community in providing opportunities for skills training and joint offers with education institutions. Governments shall provide the necessary frameworks as well as favourable conditions for young entrepreneurs. At the same time, education at all levels and youth activities need to better address labour market demands and equip the youth with skills to start their own businesses.
Included in the communiqué is also the call to ensure the recognition of degrees and other qualifications across the continent to enable voluntary labour migration. The recommendations were handed over to the AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology, Prof. Sarah Anyang Agbor, and the Head of the EU Delegation Ranieri Sabatucci who will submit them to the 5th AU-EU Summit in Ivory Coast.
120 African companies and business associations, under the auspices of Business Africa, have also committed to investing in skills development and partnership with education institutions for job skills education and training. AUC Commissioner Agbor lauded the business community’s commitment to young people and requested that more companies follow the example set to move from “Africa Talks Jobs” to “Africa Makes Jobs”.
The conference was organized in the headquarters of the African Union Commission (AUC) by the AUC, the New Partnership for Africa`s Development (NEPAD) and the continental umbrella organization for the private sector – Business Africa. To back the engagement of the business community AUC, NEPAD and Business Africa signed a declaration of commitment to foster the business community’s role in partnerships with education and job creation.
The conference was supported by the EU and Germany. Stefan Oswald, Director of Sub-Saharan Africa in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development pointed out that “Jobs are created mainly by the private sector, not by governments. Therefore, we applaud the commitment of the business community. This is an important shift of paradigm.” Ranieri Sabatucci, Head of the EU Delegation, underlined: “We must hear the youth. Working for them is not enough, we must work with them”.
The youth had a strong voice in the development of the recommendations and made up more than half of the conference participants. Among them were 36 fellows selected out of more than 7500 African and European applicants for the AU-EU Youth Plugin-Initiative. The AU-EU YPII is a programme to engage youth in developing a youth agenda to be endorsed at the 5th AU-EU Summit in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
