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Webb Fontaine Unveils Sourcemind Academy in Guinea

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Webb Fontaine

Sourcemind Academy’s Remarkable Journey – 1,082 Applicants, 108 Students and 58 Graduates

CONAKRY, Guinea, June 28, 2024/APO Group/ — 

Webb Fontaine (www.WebbFontaine.com), a leading provider of solutions for trade facilitation, is pleased to announce the launch of Sourcemind Academy in Guinea. This innovative educational venture, backed by Webb Fontaine, is set to transform the tech education landscape by offering high-level training, cutting-edge pedagogical design and experienced professional trainers to future software engineers and technology enthusiasts.

The launch of Sourcemind Academy in Guinea marks a significant milestone in Webb Fontaine’s ongoing commitment to corporate social responsibility, and to promoting educational development in emerging markets. This project comes against the backdrop of the end of Webb Fontaine’s concession with the Guinean state, requiring a crucial transfer of skills and technologies to ensure the continuity and development of the Single Window of Foreign Trade of Guinea, launched in September 2019.

Ara Shamirzayan, CTO of Webb Fontaine Group said, “We are thrilled to bring Sourcemind Academy to Guinea. We believe in nurturing the next generation of software engineers by providing them with access to quality education and training. We also believe that education is the key to unlocking potential and driving economic growth and development, and we are committed to making this a reality in Guinea.”

Mamoudou DIANÉ, Managing Director of Webb Fontaine Guinea, added, “We are extremely proud to collaborate with Sourcemind Academy to train the next generation of software engineers in Guinea. This initiative is crucial for ensuring the continuity and efficiency of The Single Window of Foreign Trade of Guinea after the end of our concession. By investing in the development of local skills, we are not only contributing to the modernization of foreign trade in Guinea but also creating economic opportunities for the young talents in our country.”

Sourcemind Academy has made significant strides in promoting tech talent through five successful pathway programs across Armenia and Benin. Building on this success, the academy is expanding its reach to Guinea, aiming to empower local students, young graduates with the expertise and capabilities necessary for a thriving career in the technology sector.

Building on this success, the academy is expanding its scope to Guinea, aiming to equip local students and professionals with the skills and capabilities needed for a thriving career in the technology sector. To date, the Sourcemind Academy’s impact includes 1,082 applicants, 108 students, 58 alumni and 11 people hired by Webb Fontaine. The academy’s curriculum is designed to cover a wide range of topics, including software development, data structures and algorithms, front-end development and more. By equipping students with these in-demand skills, the academy aims to contribute to the growth of the local tech ecosystem and create job opportunities for the youth in Guinea.

During the first four months of the pathway program, students will learn the foundations of software engineering and gain practical experience through a hands-on and highly interactive instructive-led curriculum. Upon completion of the foundation stage, participants can broaden their knowledge by specializing in java back-end engineering.  Students will also be exposed to agile software development and essential soft skills, both of which are crucial for success in the IT industry.

This pathway program is accessible to anyone curious about how things work. Ideal students include university graduates who wish to follow a career in the IT industry, open-minded enthusiasts with the determination to succeed, and those looking to make a career change to software engineering.

About Webb Fontaine Guinea

Webb Fontaine Guinea is a company dedicated to facilitating trade transactions and simplifying import and export procedures for declarants and economic operators playing a central role in the economic development of the Republic of Guinea, thanks to our cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions.

The Single Window of Foreign Trade of Guinea

Launched in September 2019, The Single Window of Foreign Trade of Guinea is an integrated platform set up by the Guinean state for a 5-year concession granted to the Webb Fontaine Group. This platform enables all players involved in foreign trade in Guinea to carry out their transactions anywhere in the world, offering a single gateway to international trade. GUCEG is an interactive portal designed to facilitate import and export operations in the Republic of Guinea.

Electronic tracking of goods in transit

Last July, Webb Fontaine signed a contract with the Guinean Customs to implement an electronic tracking system for goods in transit. This new project demonstrates our ongoing commitment to improving the transparency and efficiency of customs operations in Guinea. The electronic tracking system enables goods in transit to be monitored in real time, reducing the risk of fraud and ensuring more secure and efficient management of trade flows.

We believe in nurturing the next generation of software engineers by providing them with access to quality education and training

What we do (Our Services)

Facilitate, simplify and dematerialize import and export operations:

The GUCEG platform covers a wide range of services, from pre-clearance to customs clearance, and soon logistics for port, airport, air and rail traffic.

Public access services:

– Access to legal texts and regulations relating to import and export transactions.

– Customs duties and taxes simulator.

– List of manifests and other services for complete visibility of the import and export process.

Private access services :

– Import and export declaration of intent management.

– On-line payment of DDI/DDE and customs duties and taxes.

– Pharmaceutical license management.

Electronic tracking of goods in transit:

The new electronic goods tracking system enables you to:

– Track goods in transit in real time.

– Reduce the risk of fraud and tax evasion.

– Guarantee more secure and transparent management of trade flows.

At Webb Fontaine Guinea, we are committed to modernizing and optimizing foreign trade in the Republic of Guinea, leveraging our expertise and advanced technologies to deliver reliable and efficient solutions to our users. Our mission is to facilitate trade and support the country’s economic development through continuous innovation and high-quality services.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Webb Fontaine.

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Africa gains governance momentum in the 2026 Chandler Good Government Index, but sustaining progress is the real test

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Africa

Across Africa, average scores improved in six of the seven CGGI pillars over the past year, with the strongest gains in Helping People Rise and Financial Stewardship

This signals that stronger government capabilities are beginning to translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives

KIGALI, Rwanda, October 29, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa was the second best-performing region for governance progress in the 2026 Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI), with 71% of the African countries assessed in both 2025 and 2026 achieving higher overall scores. However, the continent remains the lowest-scoring region overall, highlighting the challenge of translating improvement in government capabilities into better outcomes for citizens.

 




 
 

These findings were highlighted by the Chandler Governance Group (CGG) at a joint session with the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) to launch the 13th edition of the Rwanda Governance Scorecard at the Kigali Serena Hotel on Thursday, 22 October 2026.

“This year, Africa’s strongest gains came in Financial Stewardship, followed by Helping People Rise, the CGGI’s outcomes pillar. This signals that stronger government capabilities are beginning to translate into tangible improvements in people’s lives, from access to quality education and healthcare to the public finances that fund them. The task now is to sustain that progress over the coming years,” says Dinesh Naidu, Director (Knowledge) at CGG.

Now in its sixth edition, the CGGI assesses government capabilities and effectiveness across 133 countries representing 94% of the world’s population, up from 120 countries in 2025. It measures 35 equally weighted indicators across seven pillars, providing governments with a framework to benchmark performance, identify gaps and learn from the experience of other countries.

Globally, the findings point to improving governance performance. Of the 120 countries assessed in both 2025 and 2026, 61% recorded higher scores, representing the highest annual share of countries improving since the Index launched in 2021. However, longer-term progress has been less consistent, with only 43% of the 104 countries tracked since 2021 recording an overall improvement.

Africa’s leading governments

Mauritius remains Africa’s highest-ranked country, placing 55th globally, followed by Rwanda (62nd), Botswana (70th), Morocco (79th) and Tanzania (80th). South Africa ranks sixth on the continent, in 85th place globally.

Rwanda features prominently in the discussion, ranking 11th globally for Leadership & Foresight and emerging as the highest-ranked low-income country in the Index. It ranks 61 places above where its income alone would predict. Across the Index, government capabilities track citizen outcomes more closely than national wealth does, suggesting that strengthening government capabilities matter in delivering better outcomes for citizens.

The joint session brings together the CGGI’s international benchmarks and the Rwanda Governance Scorecard’s assessment of governance in the Rwandan context, creating an opportunity to consider both global perspectives and country-specific priorities.

Progress across key governance pillars

Across Africa, average scores improved in six of the seven CGGI pillars over the past year, with the strongest gains in Helping People Rise and Financial Stewardship. These improvements point to progress in areas associated with public services, including healthcare and education, as well as the management of public finances.

Longer-term trends also highlight areas of progress. Between 2021 and 2026, nearly every African country assessed across the period improved its Data Capability score, with Morocco recording the largest gains. Ghana’s overall score improved in 2026, supported by stronger Financial Stewardship, while South Africa continues to show relative strength in Robust Laws & Policies, ranking 44th globally, and Attractive Marketplace, ranking 48th.

Despite these gains, the scale of the challenge remains clear. Africa’s regional average is still below its 2021 level, 23 of the 35 African countries in the 2026 Index rank outside the global top 100, and none is in the top 50. Seven African countries joined the Index this year: Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia and Togo.

“Rankings provide a useful starting point, but the broader value of the CGGI lies in helping governments understand where they are making progress and where further work is needed. Sustained improvements depend on the ability to strengthen institutions, manage resources responsibly and turn policy into meaningful outcomes for citizens,” says Naidu.

A tool for learning and improvement

The CGGI is designed as a practical diagnostic tool, helping governments identify gaps, track progress over time, and learn from peers facing similar constraints. The collaboration with the RGB brings international benchmarking together with locally grounded assessment.

“Every country faces its own governance challenges and is driven by varying priorities. Governments that are willing to take stock of the evidence and learn from peers to strengthen their institutions are well placed to achieve real improvements,” concludes Naidu.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Chandler Governance Group.

 

 




 

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Spiro brings electric motorcycles and battery-swapping technology to Ghana, expanding its pan-African footprint

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Spiro

The integrated offering aims to reduce daily operating costs and minimise downtime, with battery swaps completed in just two minutes and potential savings of up to USD 2 per day compared with petrol-powered motorcycles

ACCRA, Ghana, October 29, 2026/APO Group/ —

  • Spiro’s entry into Ghana introduces the Ekon 450 M1 V3 electric motorcycle and its battery-swapping solution, bringing a new mobility option to commercial riders and delivery fleets.
  • The integrated offering aims to reduce daily operating costs and minimise downtime, with battery swaps completed in just two minutes and potential savings of up to USD 2 per day compared with petrol-powered motorcycles.
  • Test rides and product demonstrations across Greater Accra will support the rollout and help riders experience the benefits of electric mobility.

 




 
 

Spiro (www.Spironet.com), Africa’s largest electric mobility company, is expanding its footprint in Ghana with the introduction of the Ekon 450 M1 V3 electric motorcycle and its battery-swapping solution. Combining electric two-wheelers with access to charged batteries, Spiro aims to make everyday transport more affordable and practical for riders while supporting Ghana’s transition towards sustainable mobility.

For commercial riders and delivery fleets, fuel expenses and time spent off the road directly affect daily earnings. Spiro’s integrated offering addresses both challenges: riders can exchange a depleted battery for a charged one at a Spiro battery-swapping station in just two minutes, while potentially saving up to USD 2 per day in operating costs compared with conventional petrol-powered motorcycles.

Ghana represents a major opportunity for electric mobility, with a rapidly growing two-wheeler market and increasing demand from commercial riders and delivery fleets

Designed to meet the everyday mobility needs of African riders, the Ekon 450 M1 V3 offers an alternative to petrol-powered motorcycles. Supported by Spiro’s battery-swapping technology, it allows riders to get back on the road without waiting for their motorcycle to recharge.

Auroasish Choudhuri Managing Director Central and West Africa, commented: “Our entry into Ghana is an important step in strengthening Spiro’s presence in West Africa. Our focus is on building a local ecosystem that riders can rely on, combining electric motorcycles with convenient access to battery swapping. By working closely with local partners and listening to riders’ needs, we aim to support the long-term adoption of electric mobility in Ghana.”

Kaushik Burman, CEO Mobility of Spiro said: “Ghana represents a major opportunity for electric mobility, with a rapidly growing two-wheeler market and increasing demand from commercial riders and delivery fleets. By bringing the Ekon 450 M1 V3 together with our battery-swapping solution, we are addressing two key barriers to adoption: operating costs and access to charging infrastructure. Our ambition is to build a strong foundation for electric mobility to scale across Ghana.”

To support its rollout, Spiro is engaging with prospective customers through test rides, product demonstrations and live demonstrations of its battery-swapping technology across Greater Accra. These activities give riders the opportunity to experience the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and understand how battery swapping can fit into their daily routines.

Mr Maxwell Dodd, Managing Director of Spiro Ghana, said: “For riders in Ghana, the value of electric mobility lies in what it can deliver every day: lower operating costs, less downtime and more time on the road. Through the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and our battery-swapping solution, we want to make those benefits accessible and support riders as they make the transition to electric motorcycles.”

Ghana forms part of Spiro’s wider expansion across Africa. Building on its recent USD 270 million equity funding round and an additional USD 18 million in debt financing from the Africa Go Green Fund, the company is scaling its electric mobility ecosystem with the ambition of establishing a presence in 20 African markets. Spiro is also preparing to enter new countries, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Spiro.

 

 




 

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Huawei Wireless Unveils Innovation Breakthroughs to Pioneer New Communications Networks

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Huawei

The innovation breakthroughs for pioneering new communications networks include RetinaMIMO, new materials, and OSCAR solution among other root technologies. By tackling coverage, energy consumption, and capacity challenges, the breakthroughs drive ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. The breakthroughs have unlocked a wealth of new capabilities, including the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series.
Huawei promotes A2A-T standards and drives commercial open-source OpenAN through extensive partnerships to build an open telecom agent ecosystem.

 




 
 

SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 October 2026 – At Huawei Decoding China 2026, Fang Xiang, Corporate Vice President and President of Wireless Network Solution of Huawei, unveiled a series of innovation breakthroughs to pioneer new communications networks. The innovation breakthroughs mark major leaps in root technologies focused on ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. With the breakthroughs, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series. Additionally featuring the new progress in open ecosystem for telecom agents, the breakthroughs will lay a solid foundation for new communications networks.

With booming intelligent devices and services, new devices, traffic, and applications are taking shape in the mobile industry. The new devices are expanding network connectivity from people to things and agents, increasing the number of connections by 100 times. Device-cloud synergy for intelligent services calls for stronger uplink capabilities to support training and inference, shifting network focus from downlink dominance to both uplink and downlink. With new applications, come a diversity of new interaction modes, calling for higher standards in experience and driving networks to support ubiquitous steady ultra-low latency with a high reliability.

As the world steps into an intelligent era, the value of connectivity is not only about quantity—it’s more about quality. This has been inspiring Huawei to convert cutting-edge breakthroughs into the commercial practices of new communications networks by focusing on root technologies for ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency.

Pioneering ubiquitous experience

RetinaMIMO is a new pioneering technology designed to solve the challenge of concurrent ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage. It features the industry’s first Retina scanning system that allows RF link topologies to be reconstructed to eliminate coverage collapse in the vertical direction. It also adopts a reconstructed antenna array architecture to address the diminishing marginal gains as array elements (AEs) increase.

Based on RetinaMIMO, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU. Compared with similar products with 1024 AEs, VitaAAU widens coverage by about 30%, enabling U6 GHz to match C-band in both horizontal and vertical directions. This enables operators to deliver U6 GHz coverage for new communications networks on their C-band sites, minimizing overall TCO. To date, VitaAAU has seen commercial adoption in the UAE and other markets, with peak downlink speeds exceeding 10 Gbps, making ubiquitous premium experience a reality.

Pioneering simplified, green networks

Huawei’s pioneering EP power amplifier (PA) architecture capitalizes on new materials and technologies to solve the problem of energy efficiency decline on higher frequency bands, maximizing energy conversion efficiency. The industry’s first-ever multimode dielectric filters allow antennas to have small dimensions and low power consumption on multi-channel networks with high frequency bands. Powered by new materials, technologies, and architectures, VitaAAU antenna is reduced to 1.5 m in diameter while supporting “0 Bit 0 Watt 0 Loss”, delivering superior energy saving efficiency. These innovations enable Huawei’s GigaGreen Plus series products to achieve significant reductions in dimensions, weight, and power consumption, better positioned to power simplified and green networks.

Pioneering superior spectral efficiency

Multi-band, multi-cell, and multi-user interference is a major restrictive factor of capacity. The time scaling of the Tau (τ) law is introduced to base stations for the first time to realize optimal dynamic resource scheduling across all domains based on the OSCAR solution. With low-latency bus and high-speed interconnect technology, a high-speed architecture is built to enable the real-time exchange of massive data. Thanks to software and hardware synergy, new UBBPi series products improve average user experience by 1.3 times while reducing power consumption by approximately 40%, further improving spectral and energy efficiency.

Pioneering open-source autonomous networks

Autonomous networks have emerged as an inevitable choice to deal with the growing AI services and increasing network complexity. RANSpirit is another industry first from Huawei, implementing single-domain network autonomy based on the telecom foundation model and digital twins. To date, RANSpirit is serving more than 1.2 million cells across 25 networks around the world, providing assistance to more than 2,000 engineers.

Extensive agent collaboration relies on an open, win-win ecosystem. This galvanizes Huawei to join industry partners to develop ecosystem standards, communities, and industry alliances. In terms of standards, Huawei adapts to the TM Forum, building a cross-agent foundation on the A2A-T standard and framework agreed upon by the industry. In terms of communities, Huawei jointly promotes neutral open-source communities and donates open-source agent components to the Linux Foundation, driving global collaboration and innovation. With regard to industry alliances, Huawei has taken the initiative to pool ecosystem strengths to accelerate business implementation based on the GSMA industry platform.

Fang concluded with the reiteration of Huawei’s unswerving pursuit of dual-drive innovation to promote new breakthroughs in mobile networks and work with partners from around the world to deepen the OpenAN ecosystem, advancing new communications networks through technological innovation and open collaboration.

FAQs

Q1: Why is it challenging to balance ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage?

Ultra-high bandwidth depends on higher frequency bands. As we know, a higher frequency leads to a greater propagation loss of electromagnetic waves and a weaker ability for them to penetrate obstacles, because high-frequency signals attenuate fast and have short coverage distances, while ubiquitous coverage requires signals to travel a long distance in complex environments. Inherently, the two priorities pull in sharply opposite directions.

  




 

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