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AfricAI Secures Exclusive Continental Rights to Deploy Advanced Robotics Platforms Across Africa in Landmark Deal with Micropolis Robotics

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Micropolis Robotics appoints AfricAI as its exclusive continental partner, prohibiting direct sales, alternative distributors, or third-party agents operating within the territory

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, January 27, 2026/APO Group/ –AfricAI (www.AfricAI.ai) has signed a multi-year exclusive distribution and deployment agreement with Micropolis Robotics, granting AfricAI sole and exclusive rights to commercialise, deploy, and scale Micropolis’s advanced robotics platforms across Africa, marking one of the most consequential robotics market entries on the continent to date.

Under the agreement, Micropolis Robotics appoints AfricAI as its exclusive continental partner, prohibiting direct sales, alternative distributors, or third-party agents operating within the territory. The agreement establishes AfricAI as the primary execution, localisation, and go-to-market platform for intelligent robotics across African industrial, security, logistics, and infrastructure sectors.

This exclusive mandate positions AfricAI as the gateway for advanced autonomous systems entering African markets, ensuring regulatory compliance, local capacity building, and sovereign control over deployment frameworks. The partnership moves beyond software- based artificial intelligence into the realm of physical AI — intelligent machines capable of operating in complex, real-world African environments.

“This is not a collaboration — it is a market-shaping mandate,” said Fareed Aljawhari, CEO of Micropolis Robotics. “AfricAI now represents the exclusive gateway through which Micropolis technologies enter Africa. Their sovereign AI vision, operational reach, and regulatory fluency make them the only partner capable of executing at a continental scale.

AfricAI now represents the exclusive gateway through which Micropolis technologies enter Africa

The agreement enables AfricAI to integrate Micropolis’s autonomous robotics systems with AfricAI’s sovereign AI stack, enabling AI-driven security and surveillance platforms, robotics-enabled logistics and port operations, industrial automation, smart infrastructure, and municipal robotics tailored to African operating conditions.

Embedded within the agreement are long-term performance-linked expansion rights, automatic renewals, and a structured localisation framework designed to anchor robotics deployment, workforce training, and skills transfer within Africa.

HRH Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Executive Chairman of AfricAI, stated: “Africa does not need imported automation — it needs sovereign, context-aware intelligent systems. This exclusive mandate allows AfricAI to industrialise robotics deployment at scale while retaining control, compliance, and value creation on the continent.”

Initial deployments will commence in security, smart infrastructure, and logistics, with phased expansion across multiple African states as part of AfricAI’s broader continental AI, data, and intelligent infrastructure strategy.

Industry analysts note that the agreement positions AfricAI as one of the first exclusive robotics gatekeepers on the continent, enabling Africa to leapfrog legacy industrialisation pathways through the deployment of autonomous, AI-driven physical infrastructure.

Both companies reaffirmed their commitment to responsible innovation, ESG compliance, and the development of sustainable robotics ecosystems that enhance productivity, security, and economic resilience across Africa.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of AfricAI.

 

Tech

Every thing leaves a trace: eDNA technology empowers environmental protection in China

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eDNA

BEIJING, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 16 June 2026 – Since 2021, the China Zhi Gong Party has been carrying out a Yangtze River eco-environmental protection project in partnership with east China’s Anhui Province.

Faced with the complex challenge of river basin management, the party’s central committee has leveraged its intellectual resources, bringing together a think tank of leading experts to launch a five-year “science and technology empowerment” initiative across the Jianghuai region, the area around the lower reaches of the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River.

Among them is Zhang Wei, a member of the China Zhi Gong Party and a professor at Peking University. She has led her team in monitoring biodiversity in Chaohu Lake and the main and branch tributaries of the Wanjiang River in Anhui Province through eDNA technology, which can precisely identify minute traces of life in water and even detect invasive species that are difficult to spot with bare eyes.

“We capture or collect these minute traces of environmental information and then amplify them,” said Zhang.

Without the need to fish or disturb aquatic life, this technology allows scientists to assess the biodiversity of a water body simply by analyzing genetic information from water samples. This approach has opened up new pathways for evaluating the effectiveness of the fishing ban on the Yangtze River and conducting biodiversity monitoring.

Over the past five years, Zhang’s team has worked closely with Anhui University and local environmental protection authorities to establish multiple sampling sites in Chaohu Lake and the Wanjiang River. She hopes that through targeted oversight, eDNA monitoring technology will be promoted and applied on a more comprehensive scale.

“We hope to set an example so that everyone can do their part to support environmental protection and monitoring in this way,” Zhang said.

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Tech

Kora Joins International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Payment Network to Power Airline Payments Across Africa

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Africa

Through this integration, airlines and travel agencies using IFG can now accept payments across Africa via Kora, including cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and local alternative payment methods

LAGOS, Nigeria, June 12, 2026/APO Group/ –Kora (www.KoraHQ.com), the payment infrastructure platform, has joined the International Air Transport Association’s IATA Financial Gateway (IFG) (https://apo-opa.co/4ovs4va), connecting global airlines to Africa’s payment ecosystem through a single, reliable infrastructure layer.

 

IATA Financial Gateway is the airline industry’s dedicated payment orchestration and management platform. IFG brings together global, regional and local payment partners to provide airlines with the right mix of payment options to maximize acceptance, reduce cost, and better serve customers in every market. Through this integration, airlines and travel agencies using IFG can now accept payments across Africa via Kora, including cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and local alternative payment methods, without building or managing multiple complex integrations independently.

Global airlines no longer have to choose between expanding into Africa and managing payment complexity

Africa is one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world. The continent is expected to add more than 300 million new passengers by 2050. Yet global airlines have long faced a fundamental operational challenge when entering African markets: fragmented local payment rails, FX complexity, disconnected settlement systems, and the burden of managing multiple payment service provider relationships across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa. This partnership removes that friction. One connection through IFG gives airlines access to Kora’s full African payment infrastructure, with the settlement reliability and local compliance that enterprise operations require.

Dickson Nsofor, CEO of Kora, said: “Africa is not a market to figure out later. It is a growth opportunity that demands serious infrastructure today. Our partnership with IATA signals that the rails are ready. Global airlines no longer have to choose between expanding into Africa and managing payment complexity. With Kora inside IFG, they get both.”

IATA currently represents over 370 international airlines globally. With Kora now part of IFG, those airlines gain direct access to Africa’s payment stack across every market Kora operates in.

IATA Financial Gateway (IFG) enables increased travel payment processing flexibility for the world’s airlines and travel suppliers to build a cost-effective travel payment strategy. Kora’s participation strengthens our ability to serve airlines operating in or expanding across African markets,” said Kamil Al-Awadhi, Regional Vice President, Africa and Middle East.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kora.

 

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Energy

Dietsmann Brings its Energy Maintenance and Robotics Expertise to African Energy Week (AEW) 2026

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African Energy Chamber

After decades keeping Africa’s oil, gas and power plants running, Dietsmann is bringing robotics and AI to the center of its work

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 12, 2026/APO Group/ –Dietsmann, the independent specialist in operation and maintenance (O&M) services for energy production facilities, will participate as a Bronze Sponsor at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 – taking place from October 12-16 in Cape Town. The sponsorship deepens a presence in African energy that stretches back decades and reflects the company’s growing role in the policy conversation after it joined the African Energy Chamber (https://EnergyChamber.org) earlier this year.

 

Dietsmann’s participation at AEW 2026 reflects the growing role of specialist maintenance contractors in Africa’s energy industry. With much of the continent’s production now coming from mature fields, the contractors that keep those facilities running reliably and at lower cost have become more important than ever. Dietsmann has built its position over more than four decades, maintaining oil, gas and power plants across Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, Libya, Uganda and South Sudan, often in demanding offshore and remote environments.

The company’s expertise is also on display in the Republic of Congo, where industrial maintenance is its core business. There it maintains TotalEnergies’ offshore production facilities and services the 484 MW gas-fired Centrale Électrique du Congo, one of the country’s main power plants. In Angola, it has operated since 2000 through Sonadiets, a joint venture with Sonangol that was among the first of its kind between an African national oil company and a maintenance specialist.

Dietsmann knows that reliable operations are the foundation of energy security

Dietsmann also prioritizes workforce development in parallel to its technical work. The firm has organized local training programs in all its African host countries since the early 2000s, building maintenance skills among national employees through dedicated training centers and on-the-job campaigns. Its approach aligns closely with the local-content priorities that are defining this moment in African energy policy.

Maintenance itself is being reshaped by technology, and Dietsmann is among the contractors leading the shift across Africa. In partnership with the robotics firm Taurob, the company has deployed autonomous inspection robots, including ATEX-certified units built for hazardous environments, and is integrating drones and AI-based analytics to move maintenance from reactive repairs toward predictive monitoring.

The company’s CEO Cesare Canevese has carried a consistent message into African energy circles: reliable maintenance, digitalization and local skills are non-negotiables for continental energy security. He also notes that Dietsmann’s expertise travels across the energy transition, as the fundamentals of maintaining a facility change little whether it produces oil, gas or power – readying the company for work on Africa’s growing gas-to-power and LNG projects.

“Dietsmann knows that reliable operations are the foundation of energy security,” said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “Pairing decades of field experience with new technology and local skills development is how Africa keeps its existing assets producing for longer.”

As a Bronze Sponsor at AEW 2026, Dietsmann is expected to feature in discussions on operational reliability, local content and the digital technologies reshaping how Africa maintains its energy infrastructure.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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