Author: Susan Mwenesi

Hitachi Data Systems, has  announced three new ways to improve and accelerate digital transformation initiatives. Current market offerings lack flexibility and choice for customers, forcing IT to face on their own a gauntlet of obstacles and dead ends. To address this, Hitachi Data Systems has introduced: *        Hitachi Enterprise Cloud (HEC) for organisations that choose private and hybrid cloud to automate data center operations and application delivery. *        Hitachi Management Automation Strategy, which helps organisations simplify the management of their infrastructure. *        Enhancements to Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) 2000 and UCP HC for organisations that want to transform and modernise their IT infrastructure with economical and open…

Startups and innovators from the sub-Saharan region can now register for the Ericsson Innovation Awards (EIA) that will see one of them walk away with USD 10,000. The global version of the EIA will be launched later in the year.  The theme of this year’s competition is “The Future of Food” and will give participants, both in the regional and global competition, an opportunity to develop as well as showcase innovative ideas to impact an industry in the region. EIA sub-Saharan Africa is open to students and small businesses from within the region with a limit of four people per…

   While smartphones help us stay in touch with colleagues, keep on top of our inbox, and complete urgent tasks on the move, they actually make us less productive when we are working at our desks, according to a new psychological experiment by the Universities of Würzburg and Nottingham Trent, commissioned by Kaspersky Lab. The experiment unearthed a correlation between productivity levels and the distance between  participants and their smartphone. When their smartphone was taken away, participant performance improved by 26 per cent. The experiment tested the behaviour of 95 persons between 19 and 56 years of age in laboratories at the universities…

Kenya has been elected into three key positions in a top UN agency dealing with the postal services. Kenya’s Amb. Bishar Hussein has been re-elected as the Director General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for a further four-year term (2017-2020). Kenya was also elected as a member of the UPU Council of Administration (CA) and the Postal Operations Council (POC), at elections held at the ongoing 26th UPU   Congress in Istanbul, Turkey. The Congress is the top decision-making organ of the UPU, and is held after four years. The Council of Administration on the other hand ensures the continuity of…

The fifth edition of Safaricom’s   BLAZE Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) youth summit will take place this Saturday 15th October at the Mombasa Golf Club. The event, which has so far seen over 20,000 youth from various parts of the country benefit from mentorship, networking and learning opportunities organised by young people, for young people. As has happened in the preceding events held in Eldoret, Thika, Nakuru and Nairobi, the summit will see BLAZE subscribers mentored by young Kenyans who have excelled in different professions, including rapper/entrepreneur Kevin Ombima aka King Kaka, entrepreneur Michelle Ntalami (C.E.O. and Founder, Brandvine…

The Equity Group has unveiled new digital services for its customers targeted at enabling its customers open new accounts in a more convenient way Customers will access the new services through a mobile app that will also let them pay bills, buy and sell shares, buy insurance and apply for loans The bank elected to increases its digital offering instead of expanding its brick and mortar side of business because of the rapidly changing lifestyle of their consumers, which has seen many of them prefer digital banking as opposed to going to conduct business physically at the banks. “Today we…

Smart transportation provider Mondo Ride has announced full functionality of its integrated operations, which include a robust mobile app along with a 24 x 7 call centre catering to customers across the board. The new developments come after a successful test launch and introduction of customer friendly initiatives, which include reducing rates and introducing ‘happy hours’ earlier last month. While the app allows all customers using a smart phone with an internet connection to hire cars at a press of button, the 24 x 7 call centre helps customers wanting to pre-book a car according to their needs. It also…

Africa is facing a potential slowing down of digital growth with the imminent running out of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses as from next year, Liquid Telecom has warned. Basically, IP addresses and are used behind the scenes whenever data is moved online. The Daily Nation reports that Africa is presently using the older IPv4 addresses, while the world is migrating to the new Internet Protocol, the IPv6. Africa is the last continent with IPv4 addresses, and Liquid Telecom now points out that it is now also running short. “We are almost eating into the last block of 16 million addresses…

The East Africa Community member states have begun a process of formulating a policy on ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities (PWDs), with an aim of bridging the gap between the disabled persons and the non-disabled ones. The process kicked off at two day meeting in Nairobi on Thursday that brought together regulatory and government officials from the member states. The meeting was organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regional office and hosted by Communications Authority of Kenya. The member states intend to have a common policy approach to facilitate access by disadvantaged and marginalized groups, including persons with…

Eight tech companies are joining a new trade mission into Nairobi in October, where their aim is to generate value for Kenyan telecom operators and help them provide improved services as well as improve their customer experience. Finland has been a pioneer in mobile network technology for decades, and the country has plenty of expertise to offer for promising markets like Kenya. The Finnish export and investment promotion agency Finpro is bringing the eight Finnish technology companies to Nairobi, Kenya as part of a new trade mission that aims to assist Kenyan telecom operators in improving their operational efficiency, enabling…

The African Business Angel Network (ABAN) is set to hold an angel investor masterclass in Douala Cameroon, targeted at mobilizing early-stage startups around the continent. The event will be held in conjunction with the Cameroon Angel Network (CAN) on Saturday October 8 at the Star and Hotel. There will also be an informal meeting on the eve of the event to help the guests to know each other “The investor masterclass is part of a series of bootcamps and masterclasses hosted by ABAN to ‘unlock capital for early stage innovation’, focusing on facilitating interactions between angel investors, high-potential…

Kenya Revenue Authority has begun the roll out of the Pre-arrival Cargo Clearance System (PVOC) aimed at speeding up the movement of Cargo from the Port of Mombasa to intended destinations. This will ensure timely delivery of Raw materials and other goods, including essential supplies to the Market. Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General Mr John Njiraini described the move as a very important step in the Authority’s quest to continuously make Mombasa Port more attractive and reduce the cost of doing business for investors. The move by Kenya Revenue Authority will allow the Residents of Kenya and the Region to…

Huawei Technologies has unveiled its new app, Live baze that will make it possible for artists and game players to interact with the world. Basically, Live baze is an interactive platform that will let artists share their talents, and a part of their daily activities. The mobile app, which was unveiled at the Kenya China Culture Exchange festival, will let its users interact through public private and voice chats. Additionally, users with similar interests can share on their favorite topics such as photography, travel, cooking and so on. The app targets the youth and features e-learning, teleconferencing and live games.…

Users that have suffered from Polyglot ransomware, also known as MarsJoke, can now restore their files thanks to the decryption tooldeveloped by Kaspersky Lab experts. The Polyglot Trojan has been propagating via spam emails containing a malicious attachment packed in a RAR-archive. During the encryption process, the Trojan does not change the names of the files on an infected machine but it instead blocks access to them. After the encryption is completed, the desktop wallpaper on a victim’s screen is replaced with the ransom demand. Fraudsters request their ransom in bitcoins and, if the payment does not happen in time, the…

Safaricom   has today announced an investment in Eneza Education through its $1 million Safaricom Spark Venture Fund. Eneza Education provides mobile-based education tools for primary students. The company was co-founded four years ago by Kago Kagichiri and Toni Maraviglia, who believed in the opportunity that Kenya’s expanding mobile ecosystem could provide for children who needed reliable exam revision tools. Today, Eneza has more than 1.1 million learners across 11 countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, South Africa, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Benin and Iraq. In a first partnership with Safaricom four years ago, Eneza developed the Shupavu 291 app, which…

The Innovation AfricaSummit 2016;  has received confirmations from 17 more countries whgo will be sending dignitaries to  attend the event alongside their Kenyan counterparts. The event is being held for the first time in Nairobi, Kenya and is set to take place from 20th to 22nd September 2016 at the Safari Park Hotel. The leading annual Education and ICT forum summit in Africa is being held in the country under the official patronage of the Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science & Technology and hosted by Cabinet Secretary Hon Fred Matiang’i. The list of 17 dignitaries confirmed so farinclude as…

The government of Tanzania is set to put up an Internet Data Centre (IDC) at Kijitonyama, in Kinondoni municipality, Dar es Salaam worth million (nearly 200bn/-) , a move that is widely seen as able to propel the country to ICT hub status. The country’s Minister for  Communications, Science and Technology Prof Makame Mbarawa said: “Cellular network companies will soon no longer depend on other country’s data centres thanks to this centre, which will also be used by other East African countries.” The Daily News Tanzania, the move will come in the wake of the country signing an agreement with…

Insurance leaders and experts will next week converge in Nairobi at a major conference that seeks to stimulate growth in the industry and among the major topics will be insurance emerging cyber risks and application of analytics in making investment decisions among others. The African insurance and re-insurance conference, which brings together different players from across the continent, will be held on June 22 and 23, at Crowne Plaza Hotel. The life insurance industry in Africa continues to be marked by low penetration rates with half of the countries either lacking a life industry or having a marginal market with…

 From July this year Kenyans can expect a more robust, user-friendly and intuitive Open Data portal the ICT Authority has said. Chief Executive Officer Victor Kyalo said: “ We now have a solid team in place made up of diverse professionals from data experts in Geographic Information Systems, analytics and coordinators whose work will ensure the portal meets its objectives.  With this team, we are able to strongly focus on data supply initiatives to bring more government data to the portal for easy access by the public.” The Open Data team is currently conducting a government-wide data survey that will…

The newly launched ‘Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund’ for Africa launched on 13th June 2015 is now going to contribute to the World Bank ‘Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET)’ programme. The latter seeks to award 10,000 African PhD scholarships over ten years, to strengthen research and innovation in applied science, engineering and technology. The launch event was led by the President of the Republic of Senegal HE Macky Sall, and representatives of the Heads of States of Ethiopia and Rwanda. The African Governments involved committed to the Fund alongside a new group of prominent business…

Kenyans who want to go down memory lane of their country from the comfort of their homes will soon be able to do so by browsing photographs and audio clips of Kenya’s history. Kenya News Agency (KNA) holds more than 500 thousand copies of images and audio clips that are now being digitized. The ICT Authority and KNA are in the process of digitizing the photo library collection dating back to 1936 documenting Kenyan life through the decades.  “The ICT Authority is working with KNA to digitize all the images, by December 2015.We toured the digitization center recently and found the…

 Around 100 of East Africa’s most influential IT leaders yesterday gathered at the Villa Rosa Kempinski in Nairobi for the second annual installment of International Data Corporation’s East Africa CIO Summit. Among the guests were Victor Kyalo, CEO of the ICT Authority of Kenya, whose keynote speech delivered on the  ‘Where IT Meets Business’ theme, while a roster of expert speakers were on hand to drive home the importance of closely aligning IT and business functions at a time when the region’s IT leaders are coming under mounting pressure to enhance operational efficiencies through the implementation of transformative new tech solutions.…

With the advent of the digit migration processes in the country that saw its fair share of challenges, it is clear that the broadcasting sector is evolving and among the notable changes is the consumer driving content as opposed to yester years when it was the other way round. Speaking at the stakeholder consultation forum on broadcasting regulations held today in Nairobi, ICT Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiangi said that the consumer is taking centre stage in an environment replete with an ever-expanding array of channels, platforms, devices, experiences and choices. This in turn is positioning consumers to dictate the…

Currency fluctuations in a number of the region’s key markets, as well as to the ongoing instability in global oil prices are the causes of poor performance in the PC market within the Middle East and Africa (MEA) PC which suffered a year-on-year decline of 9.6% in Q1 2015, with shipments to the region totaling 4.3 million units. That’s according to the latest market insights announced today by International Data Corporation (IDC) which showed that portable PC shipments declined 9.4% to 2.7 million units, while desktop shipments fell 10.0% to 1.6 million units. “Currency fluctuations were one of the main…

A forensic investigator working for the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday appeared before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo charged with unauthorised access to computer data in contravention of the Kenya Information and Communications Act of 2009. Mr Weldon Kiptoo Rotich  allegedly committed on June 11 where he was spotted by other colleagues on the ground-floor offices of the commission at around 4 pm at the work station of a colleague assigned on international duties. The prosecution’s case against the investigator states that on the material day while in the, he was spotted at around 4pm by his fellow staff members…

Kenyan Agribusiness innovator Taita Ngetich is the man who will be flying Kenya’s flag high at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit to be held next month in Nairobi. Ngetich was among 30 Finalists who will now undergo web based training prior to their flying to Nairobi where they will also get 2 days of intensive entrepreneurial skills training, mentorship, and networking access to global leaders in their fields all culminating to live pitching final to decide who will become the Tech-I 2015 winners. Reacting to the news, an excited Ngetich took to Twitter and said, “IT’’S OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!……….WE WON!! My heart is palpating…

Facebook users who prefer to share their photos with loved ones privately now have the opportunity to so through the Moments standalone app that uses facial recognition technology to organize photos in the phone. The app which is based on part on work conducted by the Facebook  AI Research (FAIR) team organizes the photos according to the friends in the photos.  Product Manager Will Reuben said, “Syncing photos with the Moments app is a private way to give photos to friends and get the photos you didn’t take. Moments groups the photos on your phone based on when they were taken…

A group of international researchers led by the Centre for Landscape and Climate Research at the University of Leicester have used space satellite technology to identify regions of West Africa which are vulnerable to the effects of land degradation through climate change. The team studied land degradation in Sub-Saharan West Africa, covering an area of approximately 6,140,000 km2, using statistical residual trend analysis (RESTREND) of vegetation photosynthetic capacity data (GIMMS NDVI3g), soil moisture and rainfall measured by satellites. The research was carried out as part of the thesis of a University of Leicester PhD student from Nigeria, Yahaya Zayyana Ibrahim.…

December 2016 is the new switch over date for analogue to digital transmission date for Nigeria meaning that Nigerians will have to wait for 18 more months to join the rest of the world in digital Transmission. According to The Channels, the reason given for the delay in the switch over by Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr Emeka Mba, are aggregate content development, distribution and production as well as lack of set top boxes. Another reason given was that Nigeria was experiencing a dramatic transformation in the television industry and this did not lend the industry for…

Max Com Africa Limited has unveiled a new payment platform called that will facilitate payments for bills such as tax payment to TRA, banking transactions and Luku television decoders.Along with the ease of payments it is expected that the new platform will create 200 000 jobs for Tanzanians by next year reports Daily News Tanzania. Addressing reporters  in Dar es Salaam Max Com’s head of Commercial Department, Deogratius Lazari said the service would be available after the installation of Smart Wakala application from Google play or Max Malipo website. He added that the service can be accessed by anyone with…