July 22, 2021

UL Collaborates with WIZZIT Digital to Advance Retail Payments in Sub-Saharan Africa with Launch of a SoftPOS with PIN Mobile Payment Solution

UL and WIZZIT Digital help speed deployment of contactless payments to help drive financial inclusion and empower merchants of all sizes realize their ambitions.

JOHANNESBURG, July 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — UL, the global safety science leader, has announced that WIZZIT Digital, a digital payments company, has launched a Tap2Pay software point-of-sale (SoftPOS) solution with personal identification number (PIN) entry support. This solution transforms commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices into point-of-sale (POS) payment terminals. Tap2Pay is the first SoftPOS solution developed in South Africa that supports PIN entry and is recognized by Visa and Mastercard. WIZZIT Digital has now gone live with an initial launch customer, one of the largest Pan-African commercial banks.

UL has announced that WIZZIT Digital has launched a Tap2Pay software point-of-sale (SoftPOS) solution with personal identification number (PIN) entry support. This solution transforms commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices into point-of-sale (POS) payment terminals. Tap2Pay is the first SoftPOS solution developed in South Africa that supports PIN entry and is recognized by Visa and Mastercard.

To navigate the complexities of bringing a SoftPOS solution to market, UL supported the Tap2Pay solution from development to marketplace entry. In the initial stages, UL provided advisory services to help WIZZIT Digital navigate the payments regulatory landscape and meet the payment schemes’ requirements. When Tap2Pay was ready for functional testing, UL tested it with a range of scheme-accredited tools to provide feedback on potential issues. Following debugging and troubleshooting, UL provided functional testing services and helped WIZZIT Digital gain Visa pilot type approval. After functional approval, UL’s security laboratories evaluated the solution for Mastercard’s and Visa’s security pilot programs. These tests and evaluations against scheme requirements allowed WIZZIT to bring the solution to market.

UL evaluation confirmed that the Tap2Pay solution met key security requirements before entering the marketplace. This included helping to affirm the security of payment data obtained through a near-field communications (NFC) interface and a contactless kernel of the COTS device. The solution’s security mechanisms, controls and mitigations protect the consumer’s account data and other assets.

Tap2Pay enters the market at a time when demand for contactless payment solutions is increasing. According to Deloitte, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the need for digitizing payments more critical than ever. However, many emerging markets are facing card acceptance challenges. Deloitte also noted that in South Africa approximately 90% of the 100,000 nationwide shops in the informal sector only accept cash. To meet customer demand and increase card acceptance by the smaller business market, including merchants in rural areas, needs an affordable solution.

Jako Fritz, principal security adviser at UL, said, “SoftPOS is an entirely new approach to digital payments lowering the barrier of entry for merchants to accept contactless card transactions. Cloud computing, as well as the Europay, MasterCard and Visa protocol, allows the shift from traditional physically secure POS to software-based COTS transaction processing. These solutions will help micro and small business owners and merchants around the world meet the demands of an increasingly cashless society more securely with minimal investment.”

Explaining how Tap2Pay addresses an unmet market need, Brian Richardson, CEO and co-founder of WIZZIT Digital, said, “For almost two decades, we have been working with banks and financial institutions in emerging markets, including many countries in Africa. Our experience has taught us two things. Firstly, consumers and banks want the protection of a PIN when conducting contactless transactions. With cyberfraud on the rise, a PIN offers a universally accepted layer of security that people trust. Secondly, traditional cashless payment solutions are too expensive for micro and small merchants.

“For smaller merchants, the initial investment in terminals and the ongoing maintenance costs are simply too high. Tap2Pay SoftPos with PIN removes this barrier, enabling merchants of any size to accept cashless payments. This will ultimately help them attract more customers, including those who don’t want to pay cash for goods and services, for a fraction of the cost,” said Richardson.

About UL
UL is the global safety science leader. We deliver testing, inspection and certification (TIC), training and advisory services, risk management solutions and essential business insights to help our customers, based in more than 100 countries, achieve their safety, security and sustainability goals. Our deep knowledge of products and intelligence across supply chains make us the partner of choice for customers with complex challenges. Discover more at UL.com.

For information about Standards development and other nonprofit activities, visit UL.org.

Press contacts:
Steven Brewster
UL
ULNews@UL.com
+1.847.664.8425

Christina Bostock
IHC
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971.55.887.3054

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July 22, 2021

Several Suspects in Custody in Plot to Assassinate Madagascar’s President

Authorities in Madagascar have arrested several people they believe were part of a plot to kill President Andry Rajoelina.

The attorney general’s office issued a statement Thursday saying the suspects were part of a conspiracy to undermine the island nation’s security, including “the elimination and neutralization” of a number of people.

The suspects include both foreign nationals and Madagascar-born citizens.

The statement said the investigation is still ongoing.

Source: Voice of America

July 22, 2021

Cameroon Police Intercept Pangolin Scales Trafficked From 3 Central African States

Cameroonian police say they have for the first time during the pandemic seized parts of an estimated 2,000 pangolins poached in Cameroon and neighboring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Police say travel restrictions had slowed trafficking of the endangered anteater to Asia, where its meat is considered a delicacy and the scales are used in traditional medicine.

At least 12 bags of Pangolin scales and leopard skin are in a police warehouse at Nlonkak, a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

Claude Mboutou Abessolo, the ranking officer at the police station says the Pangolin scales and leopard skin were seized from traffickers in Yaounde this week.

Abessolo says the traffickers were arrested while preparing to transfer the scales and animal skin to Cameroon’s neighbor, Nigeria.

He says the police in Cameroon, Nigeria and Benin are collaborating to track other members of a group of Pangolin traffickers operating in the three countries. He says it will not take long for the traffickers to be caught in the police dragnet. He says some of the traffickers have been arrested in Cameroon.

Abessolo did not say how many people have been arrested but said the youngest among the traffickers is 24 years old. He said some of the pangolin scales and leopard skins are either hidden in Cameroon or are being illegally shipped to Nigeria, from where they will be smuggled to Asian countries especially China.

The police said the operation was supported by Cameroon’s Forestry and Wildlife Ministry and the Last Great Ape, a conservation group.

The group’s vice president, Eric Kabah Tah, says close to 2,000 pangolins have been illegally killed in Cameroon in the past 16 months. Tah says the scales are hidden in houses and in the bush. He says with COVID-19 travel restrictions over and police control relaxed, traffickers are struggling to smuggle pangolin scales out of Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

“Wildlife traffickers came up to bring problems due to the restrain in mobility because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but right now we are seeing a remobilization, we are seeing more and more traffickers in pangolin scales. We are witnessing pangolin scales leaving Cameroon and other central African countries and moving over to Nigeria where it is exported to Asian countries.”

Tah said villagers in Cameroon who lost their jobs or whose agricultural work took a nosedive due to COVID-19 are selling pangolins to traffickers, who kill the animals for their scales.

Harouna Nyandji Mgbatou is a senior government official, a division officer in Yaounde’s first district, where Nlonkak is. He says the government will make sure those who help traffickers are prosecuted.

He says Cameroonians should report traffickers and reduce poaching. He says pangolins are protected to maintain a balanced ecosystem and save humans and the forest from environmental degradation. Mgbatou says Cameroon’s government will not spare anyone caught selling or helping to sell pangolin scales.

According to Cameroonian wildlife law, anyone found in possession of pangolin scales or parts is considered to have killed the anteater and is liable to prison time of one to three years and or a payment of up to $ 20,000.

Cameroon reports that pangolins are killed in the central African state and smuggled to Asian countries where demand is high. Small numbers of pangolins are killed for food.

Last year, Pangolin scales were removed from the list of ingredients approved for use in traditional Chinese medicine. Animal protection groups said the move was a key step in stamping out trade in pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammal.

Last Great Ape and Cameroon’s government say the effort by Chinese authorities has not stopped the slaughter of pangolins in the country.

Source: Voice of America

July 22, 2021

Ankle Injury Rules Out Kenya’s Kamworor

Kenyan 10,000 metres runner and 2019 New York Marathon winner Geoffrey Kamworor has pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics due to an ankle injury, he told BBC Sport Africa on Thursday.

The 28-year-old is a three times world Half Marathon champion, and previous world record holder, and had hopes of a medal in the 10,000m after winning the national trials.

He won silver at the 2015 world championships in Beijing, behind Britain’s Mo Farah.

The injury comes after he was hit by a motorcycle while training near his home in June last year, suffering a fractured tibia.

“These are obstacles which can come on your way when you come back from a tough injury earlier on. It’s only now extremely bad timing,” the BBC quoted his manager Valentijn Trouw as saying.

Source: Voice of America

July 22, 2021

WHO Urges African Nations to Speed Up COVID-19 Vaccinations

The World Health Organization is urging African countries to ramp up preparations for COVID-19 vaccination rollouts in anticipation of the imminent arrival of millions of vaccine doses on the continent. WHO reports more than 6.2 million people have been infected with COVID-19 and more than 159,000 have died.

New cases of COVID-19 in Africa have fallen slightly following eight weeks of a fast-moving surge. The decline is attributed to a sharp drop in cases in South Africa. However, the World Health Organization reports the situation could change quickly as violent protests and mass gatherings in the country could trigger another rise in cases.

WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says Africa’s third wave is not over. She notes 21 countries, three more than last week, are experiencing a resurgence. She says the highly contagious delta variant has now been detected in 26 countries and 13 of them need more oxygen due to a surge in cases.

She says Africa continues to lag in COVID-19 vaccines, with just 20 million Africans or 1.5 percent of the continent’s population fully vaccinated. But she says Africa’s supply crunch is starting to ease.

She says the first delivery of doses donated by the United States through the COVAX Facility is arriving in Africa this week and altogether nearly 60 million doses from other sources are expected in the coming weeks.

“African countries must go all out and speed up their vaccine rollouts by five to six times if they are to get all these doses into arms and fully vaccinate the most vulnerable 10 percent of their people by the end of September,” Moeti said. “Around 3.5 to four million doses are administered each week on the continent, but this needs to rise to 21 million doses each week at the very least to meet this goal.”

Moeti says more than half a billion doses are expected through COVAX alone this year. This massive influx, she says, means countries must up their game.

“We need to address the issue of vaccine hesitancy,” Moeti said. “So, this communication—targeting people, targeting the messages that we are tracking and the misinformation or the fears and misconceptions is absolutely vital now because the time to mobilize people to be ready to be vaccinated is not when the vaccines are landing. It is now in this narrow period of a window that we have to do all of this.”

Regional director Moeti says countries must scale up their operations. She says countries need sufficient vaccine sites, storage facilities, adequate transport, plans for distribution and, of course, health care workers to carry out this life-saving activity.

Source: Voice of America

July 22, 2021

Guinea Reverses Decision to Pull Out of Tokyo Olympics

The West African country of Guinea has reversed an earlier decision to pull out of the Olympics and will send a delegation of five athletes to the Tokyo Games.

Minister of Sports Sanoussy Bantama Sow made the announcement Thursday after national and international outcries that followed an earlier declaration that Guinea would not send athletes to Tokyo, blaming the coronavirus and its variants.

“The Minister of State, Minister of Sports has the true pleasure of informing the people of Guinea and the whole sports family, that the government, after obtaining guarantees from the health authorities, agrees to the participation of our athletes in the 32nd Olympics in Tokyo,” the minister said in a statement.

Guinea had announced late Wednesday that it was canceling its participation to protect the health of its athletes.

Only days before the statement, Guinean Olympic committee secretary general Ben Daouda Nassoko had told The Associated Press that funds had been released for the delegation to go to Tokyo.

Fatoumata Yarie Camara, a freestyle wrestler, was one of the five athletes affected by the decision.

She confirmed, through tears of joy, that she would be departing for Tokyo. She had earlier questioned the decision to pull out.

“The question I ask myself is why has Guinea decided not to participate in the Olympic Games on the grounds of coronavirus when the organizing country like Japan hasn’t canceled these Games because of this sickness,” she told the AP. “Why? That’s what I ask myself and I still can’t find an answer.”

The other Guinean athletes are swimmers Mamadou Tahirou Bah and Fatoumata Lamarana Toure, 100-meter runner Aissata Deen Conte and judo competitor Mamadou Samba Bah.

Guinea has participated in the Olympics 11 times but has never won a medal. North Korea is the only country to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics, also citing concerns related to COVID-19.

Source: Voice of America