INMA chief Earl Wilkinson heads to East and West Africa to tackle AI, Gen Z disruption

International News Media Association (INMA) CEO and Executive Director Earl Wilkinson is currently on a high-level tour of Kenya and Nigeria this month.

The high-profile visit comes at a defining crossroads for African media houses. Local publishers are aggressively navigating the disruptive rise of artificial intelligence, changing consumer habits, dwindling legacy revenue streams, platform shifts, and an urgent push toward long-term business sustainability.

Africa at the forefront of digital transformation 

According to INMA, Africa has steadily emerged as one of the world's most dynamic landscapes for news media innovation. Local publishers are no longer just passive observers; African executives are actively helping shape global discourse around mobile-first publishing, product development, and sustainable journalism.

By IOL Reporter

Full story at IOL

Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco selected for AfCFTA digital identity and DPI rollout

ADAPT initiative will integrate digital identity, payments and data infrastructure to support cross-border trade across Africa.

Three countries in Africa will be implementing a flagship digital public infrastructure program for the first time in a bid to create a more unified African market.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has chosen Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria as the first countries to implement the Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT) initiative.

By Lu-Hai Liang

Full story at Biometric Update

The next fintech race is infrastructure. Paga wants in

Ramon Bello, GM, Paga Engine.
Image source: Paga

African fintech players raced to acquire merchants, onboard users, issue wallets, and become the app consumers reached for whenever they needed to move money.

But as digital payments mature, more fintechs are increasingly discovering that selling the infrastructure underneath financial transactions may be another business with steadier economics.

This is a bet that Paga Group is now making.

By Temitayo Jaiyeola
Full story at Tech Cabal

I wore a prototype of Google's upcoming "intelligent eyewear" and I think they might actually catch on

The Google Glasses logo at this year's I/O
(Amy Skorheim / Yahoo Tech)

Googles' audio glasses are expected this fall and will put Gemini right in your ear.

During day two of Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference, I finally got a chance to try on a prototype of the company’s forthcoming “intelligent eyewear.” Developed in partnership with Samsung on the hardware side and Warby Parker and Gentle Monster on the fashion side, the two new Android XR “audio glasses” are set to debut this fall.

During the keynote, a Samsung rep said the goal was creating something that people would actually want to wear. And judging from the images shared so far, it feels like they hit the mark. The Warby Parker design looks more like an old-school, horn-rim style pair, while the Gentle Monster version has a distinct retro beach-vibe (though Yahoo Tech’s Dan Thorp-Lancaster thinks they have a Matrix-y vibe, which I can also see).

By Amy Skorheim

Full story at Yahoo News

Brussels ‘will force Britain to pay billions’ to rejoin the EU

Ten years after the Brexit referendum, Remainers
continue to campaign to rejoin the EU - Getty

Brussels would force Britain to pay billions of pounds to rejoin the EU, the UK’s last European commissioner said, as Sir Keir Starmer raised the prospect of returning to the bloc.

Sir Julian King said Britain would need to surrender Margaret Thatcher’s EU budget rebate, meaning it would pay at least £5bn each year more for membership than it did before Brexit.

On Monday, Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, said the EU’s “door was open” to Britain, after reversing Brexit became central to the Labour leadership psychodrama.

By James Crisp

Full story at Yahoo News

How to have private conversations with AI using WhatsApp's Incognito Chat

Would you like to have private Incognito Chats with AI on WhatsApp?

Just like you never thought you would read that, I never thought that I would type it, but here we are.

In a move that could leave people confused, curious, or both, Meta launched its Incognito Chat on WhatsApp and MetaAI app.

Full story at IOL

By Yasmine Jacobs

AI And The Future Of Work: No Skill Is Robot-Proof

Neuroscientist and AI researcher Vivienne Ming says we are measuring the wrong things, hiring for the wrong traits, and building AI that makes us less capable. The fix, she argues, is not more training—it is a different kind of human.

Ming is author of Robot-Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People. She doesn’t speak about the future of work the way most executives do. Where they tend to see a straightforward productivity story—AI as a tool that will absorb the tedious tasks and free humans for the interesting ones—she sees a far more unsettling picture. The serial AI entrepreneur argues that the very premise of the debate is wrong, and that the skills companies are currently training for are the ones AI will master first.

“We misunderstand what kind of intelligence AI actually is,” she says. “Agentic AI is a ‘how’ machine. It can learn the rules of coding, legal analysis, or financial modeling and execute them faster and cheaper than any human. If a job can be defined by past data, an AI will eventually do it.”

By Rodger Dean Duncan,

Full story at Forbes