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NCS unveils innovative suite of AI and digital resilience solutions critical to successful AI adoption

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NCS

Initiatives and new collaborations allow organisations to deploy AI securely and at scale, supported by an NCS AI talent base of 3,000 AI practitioners and 300 AI experts
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 11 July 2024 – Leading technology services firm NCS has launched a suite of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital resilience (DR) solutions for organisations looking to re-invent themselves in the AI era. These include frameworks, solutions and accelerators that governments and enterprises in Asia Pacific (APAC) can easily tap to use AI securely and at scale to drive sustainable game-changing innovation.

The launch took place at its annual Impact forum today where NCS CEO, Ng Kuo Pin, addressed over 1,000 leaders and technology practitioners from the region, and shared NCS’ AI-led plans for changing the game. He highlighted two key success factors for organisations – AI adoption and digital resilience – to fully harness the benefits of technology in a world redefined by economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and technological challenges.

Ng Kuo Pin, CEO, NCS said, “Across the world, AI is top of mind now, but organisations must not overlook the importance of digital resilience as they embrace AI’s transformational potential. To build a safer and more sustainable future, it is crucial that organisations invest to build a foundation in cybersecurity, data governance and technology that will allow AI to flourish. We believe organisations that master both AI and digital resilience will be the ones that will thrive in this increasingly complex global environment.”

Navigating the AI Journey

NCS’ new suite of solutions include the AI-Digital Resilience (AI+DR) Matrix which enables organisations to build a strategic roadmap that enhances both AI and digital resilience concurrently. Serving as an essential starting point for any organisation embarking on its AI journey, the innovative framework categorises organisations into four quadrants of AI Dust, Missed Opportunity, House of Cards, and Game Changer (see Figure 1), based on their maturity levels of AI adoption and digital resilience. This allows organisations to assess their AI and digital resilience readiness and calibrate key developmental steps as they move down the AI pathway.

Kuo Pin added, “AI will be a game changer and companies must learn the new game – the earlier, the better. Given the speed at which AI evolves and the implications of AI for businesses, working with the right technology partners to help navigate the AI landscape and plug into the right ecosystem is fundamental. Having primed our workforce for the intelligence revolution, NCS is AI-ready and well-positioned to help organisations avoid the pitfalls of AI adoption while unlocking its game-changing value. We will lead with AI inside and outside.”

AI and Digital Resilience Solutions and Accelerators

NCS also introduced Polaris DR, a solution for organisations to assess their digital resilience across five key areas – cybersecurity, data governance, infrastructure scalability, application robustness and operational responsiveness. Leveraging NCS’ expertise in large-scale implementations and operations, Polaris DR will enable them to lay the strong foundation needed for enterprise-wide growth and AI adoption by providing a customised improvement plan to address vulnerabilities in systems, technology infrastructure and IT operations.

To empower clients to deploy AI more securely and efficiently, NCS announced five innovative and repeatable Industry Business Solutions (IBS) embedded with NCS AI Accelerators. The solutions are both standardised and customisable, enabling organisations to accelerate AI deployments in three key areas – customer / citizen experience, workforce productivity, and software engineering – while ensuring consistency and scalability. The solutions not only leverage NCS’ track record in partnering governments and enterprises on their technology journeys, it also taps NCS’ deep industry knowledge and methodologies honed over time, regional AI talent pool, and extensive partnerships with global players in AI technology.

Strategic Partnerships with Global Players

NCS announced several strategic partnerships with industry leaders to further facilitate AI adoption and digital resilience. NCS is partnering Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch its inaugural Generative AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Public Good with AWS’s Generative AI Innovation Centre (GAIIC)[1]. Customised for the APAC public sector, the CoE will leverage AWS’s team of strategists, applied scientists, engineers, and solutions architects through the GAIIC’s Partner Innovation Alliance programme to envision, scope, and accelerate public sector solutions using AWS. The collaboration combines NCS’ end-to-end capabilities and industry experience with AWS’s Generative AI services and global expertise.

Elsie Tan, Country Manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Singapore, AWS said, “We’re excited to collaborate with NCS to establish its inaugural CoE for Public Good that will accelerate the delivery of innovative citizen services. At AWS, we help customers move Generative AI from theory into practice by providing purpose-built services and expert guidance. Through this collaboration, we’ll empower NCS to bring Generative AI workloads to life and help public sector agencies drive impactful outcomes for the people they serve.”

NCS is collaborating with Dell Technologies to leverage Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, as an early adopter in APAC and Japan to further accelerate adoption of Generative AI solutions by enterprises in the region. With their combined expertise in Generative AI and breadth of industry experience, NCS and Dell are committed to simplifying clients’ AI adoption journeys and enhancing proof of concept efforts. This collaboration allows clients to explore customised and pre-validated solutions to turbocharge their Generative AI projects in a modular manner.

NCS also signed an MOU with Schneider Electric, the global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, as the first-in-Asia partner under Schneider’s Sustainability Partner Program to provide clients end-to-end sustainability offerings and AI-enabled solutions. The partnership additionally leverages the deep expertise of both companies to better address higher density computing demands from Generative AI workloads and meet emissions compliance requirements, through innovations in sustainable and energy-efficient cooling systems for GPUs and CPUs. Clients will also benefit from a holistic suite of green offerings including education, consulting, solutions and services, tailored to better reduce their carbon footprints and progress towards Singapore Green Plan 2030 and Net Zero.

Yoon Young Kim, Cluster President, Singapore and Brunei, Schneider Electric said, “Our partnership with NCS represents a critical step towards setting a new standard in sustainability for data centres. The urgency to decarbonise the energy-intensive data centre sector cannot be overstated, even as Singapore and the rest of the world double down on cutting down greenhouse gas emissions from our operations. By leveraging our respective expertise, we aim to enable clients to achieve new operational efficiencies, reduce their data centre carbon footprints, and realise significant energy cost savings.”

NCS is collaborating with Income Insurance to extend location-based, hourly travel insurance for travellers in Singapore through the innovative Breeze mobile app. With this new offering, Breeze users will soon be able to receive location-based recommendations for FlexiTravel Hourly Insurance that offer pay-per-hour travel insurance for short trips when travelling to nearby countries. Additionally, Income’s motor insurance policy holders can use Breeze to access an in-app module for accident reporting and to contact Income Orange Force for assistance. The partnership lays the foundation for the future use of data and AI to enhance insurance services, such as providing supplementary data for accidents using mobile device sensor analytics.

Peter Tay, Chief Digital Officer, Income Insurance said, “We are constantly looking to work with like-minded partners in closing protection gaps. Through this collaboration with NCS, we are able to leverage smart, real-time data to extend insurance protection to motorists and travellers. With valuable insights and data via Breeze, we can better co-create customer-centric insurance innovations to meet modern lifestyle needs.”

Building the AI Talent Pipeline

As NCS becomes intelligence-led, the company has been infusing AI across the organisation and building a pipeline of future AI talent. It has equipped its 13,000-strong workforce located across APAC with AI-powered services and solutions to enhance productivity and transform how NCS operates and delivers its services. NCS will also create a 3,000-strong AI-certified practitioner base to accelerate implementation and deployment of clients’ AI projects. Over 300 of them will serve as AI experts with deep AI expertise to lead cutting-edge AI innovations. NCS will work with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to achieve these ambitions through the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) initiative as well as upskill and reskill their workforce to become confident AI users through courses offered by the Information & Communications (I&C) Jobs Transformation Map Training Partners.

Kiren Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, IMDA said, “In support of Singapore’s National AI Strategy, IMDA is committed to working with companies to build a strong AI talent ecosystem in Singapore. We will continue to support NCS to upskill their workforce, developing AI practitioners and specialists to build and deploy AI-enabled system.”

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SBM Offshore Confirmed as Silver Sponsor for African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Amid Africa FPSO Expansion Push

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June 10, 2026

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African Energy Chamber

SBM Offshore will participate as Silver Sponsor at African Energy Week 2026, where they are set to showcase FPSO expansion in Angola, Namibia and Guyana amid strong financials and a deepwater innovation strategy

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Multinational oil and gas services company SBM Offshore will participate at this year’s African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Conference and Exhibition as a Silver Sponsor, reinforcing the company’s long-term commitment to Africa’s expanding deepwater oil and gas industry. Their participation comes as SBM Offshore accelerates brownfield optimization projects in Angola while aggressively positioning itself for new frontier developments in Namibia’s Orange Basin.

 

SBM Offshore’s return to AEW, which takes place from October 12–16 in Cape Town, is expected to draw significant industry attention as operators, financiers and EPC contractors evaluate the next wave of floating production infrastructure across the Atlantic Basin. With more than 20 years of experience in Africa and over $31 billion in contract backlog globally, the company remains one of the world’s most influential FPSO suppliers.

The Sponsorship follows several major milestones announced during 2025 and 2026. On May 26, the American Bureau of Shipping approved SBM Offshore’s seawater intake riser technology developed alongside Shell. The system pumps cold seawater from depths of 700m to FPSO topsides, reducing onboard cooling energy demand and improving emissions performance for future African and South American projects.

The company’s financial position strengthened considerably following the $2.32 billion sale of FPSO One Guyana to ExxonMobil in February 2026. The transaction helped drive a 216% year-on-year increase in Q1 2026 directional revenue to $3.5 billion while reducing SBM Offshore’s net debt from $5.7 billion to $3.2 billion by March 21, 2026.

SBM Offshore continues to demonstrate the technical expertise, operational scale and long-term investment approach needed to advance Africa’s next generation of energy projects

In March 2026, ExxonMobil awarded SBM Offshore front-end engineering and design contracts for the Longtail development in Guyana. The proposed FPSO is expected to feature the world’s highest gas-handling capacity ever deployed on a floating production vessel, processing 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas and 250,000 barrels of condensate daily.

Across Africa, SBM Offshore continues expanding its offshore footprint. In Angola, the company signed multi-year extensions in December 2025 with Esso Exploration Angola for FPSO Mondo and FPSO Saxi Batuque in Block 15, extending operations through 2032. Brownfield upgrades and life-extension works commenced in early 2026 to support declining reservoir pressure management and maintain environmental compliance standards.

The company also finalized a share purchase agreement with Equatorial Guinea’s national oil company GEPetrol in December 2025, restructuring regional asset ownership and supporting localized operational transitions. The FPSO Aseng formally exited SBM Offshore’s lease-and-operate fleet during the same period as management responsibilities shifted toward Equatoguinean entities.

Namibia retains a central focus of SBM Offshore’s African growth strategy. The company is actively competing for TotalEnergies’ Venus FPSO contract in the Orange Basin, one of Africa’s largest recent offshore discoveries with estimated resources of roughly 2 billion barrels. SBM Offshore has expanded its Cape Town commercial engineering workforce while positioning its standardized technologies for upcoming South Atlantic developments.

“SBM Offshore’s participation at this year’s event reflects the growing momentum behind Africa’s deepwater industry and the critical role FPSO technology will play in unlocking new production. From Angola’s mature offshore hubs to Namibia’s frontier discoveries, SBM Offshore continues to demonstrate the technical expertise, operational scale and long-term investment approach needed to advance Africa’s next generation of energy projects,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber.

Looking ahead, SBM Offshore aims to combine frontier expansion with lower-emission offshore production systems. Through partnerships with SLB and Cognite, the company is integrating industrial AI platforms to its global fleet while scaling standardized hull construction to accelerate project delivery timelines across Africa and Latin America.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa Joins African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 as South Africa Opens R400B Grid Expansion to Private Investment

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June 10, 2026

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Kgosientsho Ramokgopa

South Africa has moved from rolling blackouts to a year of stable supply, and Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa now turns to the grid expansion and market reforms needed to keep the lights on and draw private capital

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister of Electricity and Energy of the Republic of South Africa, has been confirmed as a featured speaker at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026, where he is expected to outline the next phase of the country’s power-sector recovery and the investment drive needed to expand the electricity grid.

 

Taking place October 12-16, AEW 2026 represents the largest energy gathering on the African continent, offering a strategic platform for dealmaking and partnerships. Minister Ramokgopa’s participation reflects the country’s ambitions to strengthen investment flows across the power and energy markets, supporting long-term generation resilience and improved transmission networks.

South Africa has moved from one of the worst phases of its electricity crisis to its most stable supply in years. The country recently passed a full year without load-shedding, and the grid is at its strongest in half a decade, with roughly 4,400 MW more generation on hand than a year earlier. The return of Kusile Power Station to its full output of about 4,800 MW helped anchor the turnaround.

South Africa’s recovery shows what disciplined execution can achieve, and opening the grid to private capital is the logical next step

With supply stabilized, Ramokgopa has reframed the current market challenge as being less about generation and more to do with transmission, offtakers and bottlenecks, pointing to more than 130 GW of generation projects that have yet to secure firm offtake agreements. That bottleneck sits at the center of the country’s largest infrastructure push. The Transmission Development Plan calls for 14,000 km of new power lines and 105 substations by 2030, at a cost of roughly R400 billion, to unlock an additional 22.5 GW of capacity.

Because neither Eskom nor the state can fund that build alone, the government has opened transmission to private investment for the first time through the Independent Transmission Projects (ITP) program. In December 2025, Ramokgopa named seven prequalified bidders for the first phase, all of them international-led consortia. The phase covers 1,164 km of high-voltage lines across seven corridors, with a combined value of about $1 billion. A request for proposals is expected in the second half of 2026.

“South Africa’s recovery shows what disciplined execution can achieve, and opening the grid to private capital is the logical next step,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “The real opportunity now is in transmission, and the investors who help build that network will open up generation that will change South Africa’s future for the better.”

Private appetite is already evident on the generation side. The latest round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program drew 10.2 GW of bids against the 5 GW on offer. In the 2025/26 financial year, eight new independent power projects came online with a combined 800 MW, and another 1,610 MW is under construction.

Minister Ramokgopa is also expected to address the Integrated Resource Plan 2025, the government’s blueprint guiding new generation capacity, and the rollout of a competitive wholesale electricity market intended to open the sector beyond Eskom.

As AEW 2026 prepares to convene policymakers, investors and operators at the Cape Town International Convention Center this October, Minister Ramokgopa’s participation is the host nation’s signal that its power sector is open for investment.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) 2026 programme launched as Africa’s carbon markets move from readiness to delivery

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June 10, 2026

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CMAS

Positioned as a pan-African marketplace, CMAS connects policy, project pipelines, capital and buyers in a structured environment focused on enabling real deal flow

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa is emerging as an exciting destination to develop carbon market projects with improved policy certainty and more and more projects becoming investment-ready. As global carbon markets transition from rule-setting to real transactions, with Article 6 mechanisms moving into implementation and compliance-driven demand such as CORSIA accelerating, attention is shifting towards where credible supply, policy certainty and investment-ready projects can be delivered at scale.

 

Against this backdrop, the Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) that is organised by VUKA Group has released its official 2026 programme, outlining how Africa’s carbon markets can move beyond frameworks into execution, investment and transactions. The summit will take place from 13–15 October 2026 in Kigali, Rwanda, hosted by the Ministry of Environment of Rwanda, with UNDP and the African Development Bank (AfDB) as host organisations, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) as host partner, and AUDA-NEPAD as the strategic institutional partner.

Positioned as a pan-African marketplace, CMAS connects policy, project pipelines, capital and buyers in a structured environment focused on enabling real deal flow.

This year’s programme reflects a changing market dynamic, one where integrity, quality and transaction readiness are becoming decisive.

“Carbon markets are entering a more selective and operational phase. The question is no longer whether Africa has a role to play, but whether the continent can bring forward credible projects, enabling frameworks and market infrastructure to transact at scale,” said Emmanuelle Nicholls, Project Lead. “CMAS 2026 is designed as a response to that moment – connecting the actors, pipelines and capital needed to move from ambition to execution.”

Africa’s carbon markets must be built on integrity, equity, and continental coordination so that carbon finance delivers real value

Within this evolving context, the summit places strong emphasis on the foundations required to scale markets responsibly. As Estherine Fotabong, Director at AUDA-NEPAD, notes, “Africa’s carbon markets must be built on integrity, equity, and continental coordination so that carbon finance delivers real value for communities, ecosystems, and sustainable development across the continent.”

A programme built for execution

The CMAS 2026 programme spans the full carbon market value chain from policy and Article 6 implementation to project development, finance and transactions. Key highlights include the keynote opening session on delivering projects, capital and transactions at scale, a high-level dialogue on trust and market readiness, ministerial and technical roundtables, and sessions focused on buyer demand, investor priorities and deal structuring.

 

A central feature is a curated pipeline of African carbon projects across nature-based solutions, regenerative agriculture, carbon removals, waste-to-value and blue carbon, presented through project showcases, case studies and investment-ready deal rooms.

The programme also includes solution labs and technical workshops addressing critical bottlenecks—including Article 6 and CORSIA implementation, early-stage finance, MRV systems and project bankability, alongside live demonstrations of digital carbon infrastructure, ensuring focus on practical market development and delivery.

CMAS 2026 is hosted in Rwanda, a country advancing carbon market frameworks under Article 6, and takes place at a pivotal moment as global markets increasingly prioritise integrity, quality and real delivery at scale.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of VUKA Group.

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