Going mobile in Africa - 5 Mar 2012

Towards the end of 2011 I made the statement that the African continent wasn't showing any sign of slowing down, especially in the mobile sector. We are now approaching the end of the first quarter of the year and things are still looking bright.

With that said, Airtel Africa has announced that it will continue its existing partnership with Google, with the aim to make internet products more accessible to consumers across Africa. The two companies have teamed up to launch Google+ and Chat SMS features across the 16 markets in which Airtel operates and plans to continue the strategic relationship to increase affordable access to the internet and Google products for its end users.

Airtel also announced a key partnership with Ver se' Innovation. This is a step towards the development of its mHealth platform and sees the two companies come together to provide low cost, easily accessible mobile health services.

Etisalat, the telecommunications company with operations in 17 markets across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, has won three awards at the annual Mobile World Congress in Spain.

In other news this week:

• The Malawian government has again launched an attack on The Sunday Times newspaper following an assessment of the cabinet. The newspaper reportedly labeled the cabinet as a failure;
  

• Alliance Media Botwana wins airport advertising tender;
  

• Seacom appointed Idea Engineers as its media relations agency; and
  

• CEO and director of Ogilvy Kenya, Koome Mwambia's, has decided to take an early exit from the company.

If you were unable to attend this years Design Indaba conference and expo, check out our Design Indaba special section to see what you missed out, also view our Twitterfall to see what people were saying.

Here's to another great week!

Evan-Lee Courie (@evan1985)