Climate Innovation Centre (CIC) has set off operations in Ethiopia and is expected to deploy and develop climate friendly technologies. The move by the clean technology revolution aims at driving solutions to climate change through the provision of financial support and mentorship to local climate change entrepreneurs specialized in energy efficiency, biofuels, renewable energy and agribusiness. Having Infodev a global innovation program by World Bank, spearhead the project, Ethiopia CIC was established in December 2013 and launched with the support of a $5million grant agreement between World Bank and the Addis-Ababa University. Ethiopia CIC is expected to support over…
Author: Shiko Gathoni
Released back in 2000, one of the most successful nokia gadgets Nokia 3310 is actually making a modern-day come back. This cult handset will add a 41MP pure View camera with Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, it will also run on a modified version of Windows Phone 8 to fit the unique ‘ClearDiamond’ three inch touch screen having live tiles and app folders are supported which also comes pre-intalled with MS Office, Xbox Games, Outlook and OneDrive that offers 7GB free cloud storage out of the box. The device will come in yellow, blue, red and green as well as…
Kenya’s leading telecommunication companies Safaricom and Airtel respectively have been granted conditional approval to acquire the assets of Essar Telecom Kenya operating under the brand yuMobile. This comes after a delay by the regulator to respond to the telecoms application having Safaricom hint on withdrawal from the deal. The commission however denied the accusation by Safaricom saying the response was in good time and in the right time frame. The two contenders will be required to pay 5.4 million fee for Yu’s license. This will be followed by a six months transition period provided by Communications Commission of Kenya that…
Apple and multinational corporation Samsung have officially renewed their tech patent face off and will today arraign themselves in court for the hearing at federal court in the heart of silicon. The two technology firms are battling for supremacy in a multi-billion dollar market in a law suit where Apple is seeking about $2billion in damages from Samsung for selling phones and tablets that Apple says violate five of its mobile software patents. However, Samsung on the other hand claims Apple violated two of its patents. The perpetual war has got Google caught up in the middle considering one of…
Airtel has launched a mobile app that enables viewers to watch their favorite TV programmes while on the move. The ‘pocket TV’ has over 150 Live TV channels and more than 10,000 hours of video content and over 13 channels on anytime TV now offering subscribers a never-before library of video content which is available at an affordable price. “The app is a convergence of the TV and mobile phone and its launch follows the success of Airtel Digital TV’s innovative offering of Twitter on TV, which was the first global convergence of Twitter and TV,” said Airtel’s statement. The…
Vodafone in partnership with private sector ICICI Bank has launched an M-Pesa facility in Tamil Nadu India that will allow mobile customers in the region to deposit, withdraw and transfer money to any mobile phone. The popular mobile money transfer and payment service M-Pesa was launched by Vodafone India’s operations Director (south, Suresh Kumar, Business Head, Tamil Nadu and Chennai, Apoorva Mehrotra. “We are delighted to bring to Tamil Nadu and Chennai, the M-Pesa mobile banking service. It is safe, secure and convenient service to transfer money and make payments beyond the reach of traditional banking channels,” said Mehrotra. The…
JUMIA, Nigeria’s leading fashion store has rolled out the proudly Nigerian Fashion “By Naija” in a bid to recognize local talents by welcoming as many Nigeria brands as possible to reach their target audience online at ease as well as get the maximum exposure for their brand. With an industry that has grown so big over the years having the most talented fashion designers making everything from clothing and accessories to shoe and beauty products from scratch, the platform will be a stepping stone for designers in their recognition across borders with the latest addition of over 50 New Nigerian…
East Africa’s Leading mobile phone company, Safaricom may allegedly abandon its bid to acquire assets owned by Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd in the absence of regulatory approval. Communications Authority of Kenya has to date not acknowledged Safaricom’s receipt of application to make the acquisition which was handed in by the telco one month ago. Safaricom plans to buy Essar’s network base stations and transmission equipment. However, the regulator has demanded that Safaricom improve its network quality before being granted a new license. Airtel, the second-biggest operator, is set to take over Essar’s 2.75 million subscribers and licenses. Yu, the Essar…
LG Electronics has introduced a total of 68 new models in its 2014 TV lineup, Korea. The models include ULTRA HD TVs in sizes ranging from 49 to 105 inches. The leading electronics company was the first to introduce an 84-inch ULTRA HD TV in 2012 and has now unveiled groundbreaking 105-inch curved ULTRA HD TV in addition to its smaller 65-, 55- and 49-inch curved 4K units. LG’s webOS Smart TV platform is among the new for 2014 first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show which the company expects to set a new standard in the smart TV market…
Huawei Kenya has condemned hacking of its parent company’s servers by US National Security Agency, after obtaining sensitive information and monitoring the communications of top executives late last week. Huawei Technologies offers hardware and software support to a number of Kenyan IT firms including Safaricom, Telkom Kenya and has also secured lucrative telecommunication infrastructure contracts with the government. Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) however denied knowledge of spying on Kenya said to be a top target. It is said that NSA was interested in getting information on key Chinese customers including high priority targets; Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya and Cuba.…
Nigerian-based IT solutions firm, Softcom Limited in collaboration with Philips have plans underway to unveil its educational tablet, KNOWLEDGETAB later this month to the public for senior secondary school students in Nigeria. The device is an Android 4.2 tablet computer in-built with e-library compromising 56 sets of textbooks, a virtual Classroom containing 51 high quality video tutorials and 15 hours of audio voiceovers, covering 823 textbook chapters and an Assessment Zone, containing over 29,000 simulated past questions covering a period of ten years. The tablet also offers an array of extra-curricular material, including moral instruction, educational games, language lessons and…
Infinix Mobility and Safaricom launched Alpha Marvel a stylish and affordable smartphone to the Kenyan market. The device running on Google operating system Android 4.2.1 jellybean provides premier user and gaming experience driven by Quad-core 1.5 GHz processor with 4GB plus 1GB memory. The new smartphone comes with 500MB worth of data upon purchase and will be available in all Safaricom shops across the country. Alpha marvel is set to offer more fun, trendy youthful appeal and compact design to the avid android lovers it also comes with a 13MP camera and 5MP front-facing camera as well as the smile shot feature, which automatically captures…
Barclays bank has acquired a code from Safaricom for customers to make direct payments to and from their accounts through M-Pesa’s Pay for Goods service, similar to Safaricom’s Lipa na M-pesa. The bank looks to sign in big retailers and distributors of cigarettes, bread and soft drinks to its mobile phone based payments platform for them to have the money directly wired to their accounts. As much as the service seems competition to Safaricom’s Lipa na M-Pesa the telecommunications company is set to be the biggest winner in the deal since it will be receiving commission payment of one per…
With only 12 days to the deadline, only 40 per cent of about 1.5 million ATM card users have been issued new chip-based cards which bankers were to acquire to avoid the risk of rampant fraud. The use of magnetic cards in Kenya have increasingly had fraud cases occur since they can easily get cloned leaving the industry in a compromising situation not knowing who to pay for losses arising from fraudulent transactions made possible by non-compliance. “Liability is ordinarily on the bank that has not complied” said Kenya Bankers Association Chief Executive, Habil Olaka. The entire banking system will…
The Kenya ICT Authority is on a working progress to open up its small business programme to more financiers ending an arrangement where it previously worked with a single bank project. This comes as the authority is set to restart issuing subsidized loans in June for setting up digital centres after controversy stalled the scheme. The authority will henceforth use multiple banks in loan provision as opposed to previous engagement with sole financier Family Bank. Sole financier model was restrictive and thus limited the choice of applicants in terms of where to get loans; however the authority will now work…
Leading global payment service company Western Union in collaboration with Paga mobile payment platform in Nigeria has launched a new mobile money transfer service in Nigeria in a bid to expand reach in the country. The move will henceforth allow paga users have the option of receiving a Western Union Money transfer transaction directly into their account; customers can withdraw the money by sending it to a bank account, make international money transfers for mobile pick up through Paga as well as withdraw from an ATM or via Paga mobile money service that has over 4,000 established agents in Nigeria.…
Mozilla has announced no plans of shipping a final version of the Mozilla Firefox browser for the Windows 8 Metro because of the relatively miniscule number of users on the platform. The platform has not hosted more than 1,000 users pre-testing the beta version of Mozilla but has seen millions of people test pre-release versions of Firefox on other platforms. The company has recorded notable progress since they shipped Firefox 1.0 and now requires marshalling their forces appropriately considering the massive scale of competitors. Mozilla launched its Metro effort in 2012 which broke through Microsoft’s controls and began developing Firefox…
Isiolo county government has partnered leading telecommunication company Safaricom to aid in revenue collection using its mobile money platform M-Pesa which will see Isiolo residents pay their bills through the service. The electronic payment system includes that of land transactions considering the county heavily relies on tourism, livestock, land leases and rates which will have individuals make payments for game park visitations electronically. Land registry, land owners will hence fourth trace all their records on-line with details including maps. “Ratepayers can now pay their bills to the county through M-Pesa. You can now have an option of using your mobile…
State organizations will now be expected to advertise digitally following a drafted amendment requiring state organizations to advertise on online platforms in a bid to have more reach and save a tangible amount of money too. The government aims to cut down the advertising budget by more than 50 per cent this year and 70 per cent next year. The move to digital advertising by the organization will save Ksh5 billion each year and still develop the use of ICT for economic growth while at it. “We in the national government have taken that decision and its going to cascade…
Google has encrypted all searches made by people in china to avoid official scrutiny of where they go online and in a bid to take privacy a notch higher in the country. The search engine will now encrypt all the text involved in searches “by default” around the world. The move is also a reaction to continuing revelations about the extent of surveillance of web browsing habits by the National Security Agency (NSA). US and UK have had the option to encrypt their searches since 2010 and Google is now upgrading search processes around the world. In China, the web…
VMare has launched software designed to make it much easier for its customers to store large numbers of virtual machines created with the company’s software. The software provides storage space for the virtual disks (VDs) that hold the data needed to run VMs. It is the first foray into storage virtualization after the company offered server virtualization with desktop and network virtualization underway as well. The vSAN software is built directly into the kernel of VMare vSphere, the company’s virtualization OS. The features in it are however similar to the vSphere in which the software pools together internal storage either…
Safaricom is set to tap into the education sector with the introduction of E-learning professional certification for all Kenyans and also offering online learning in professional courses such as information systems security and audits. The leading telecommunications company is looking to expand its courses to incorporate the needs of many Kenyans who would like to be more efficient and competitive in their workplaces. The programme has been open to Safaricom employees only, now in its third year having 88 per cent gone through it. Bob Collymore however hinted on a plan underway to open the session to all Kenyans in…
Africa’s Digital President honorable Paul Kagame has been linked to a notorious Twitter troll in which a bizarre message was sent through his twitter account. @RichardGoldston has been the lately ‘a daily diet of politically incorrect abuse’ twitter handle from Rwanda who was an anonymous Rwandan tweeter which has no relation at all to Richard Goldstone, a former prosecutor on the International Criminal Tribunal for the country who routinely hurled insults and made comments that differed considerably from Rwandan government policy. The individual called South African president a “black retard” criticizing AU terming it a toothless dog, saying UN is…
Jubilee’s pet project- ‘Laptop project’ has once again backfired after the procurement authority rejected the Indian company that had been awarded the 24.8 billion tender. The company now rendered insufficient was the lowest bidder amongst the few considered by government. The government has instead been given 45 days within which they should re-evaluate bids by computer firms HPU-netherlands and Haier- China and award a new tender. Considering it as one of Jubilee’s pillar campaigns, the latest set-back has definitely raised political heat with opposition rather terming government affair as analogue. The promised project was supposed to see the government provide…
A Kenyan techie has designed and developed a mobile application, Akida that keeps track of mobile staff and those located in remote sites. The application picks the GPS coordinates, a date and time log for attendance and facial verification that employees can use the reporting feature for feedback. The system allows users to check in using a username and password as well as take a photo of themselves, which they submit; they are also expected to report on their daily activities and receive important information using their mobile phones and receive notifications from their employers through an alerts feature. Catherine…
BlackBerry is not unduly worried about competition from instant messenger WhatsApp saying that BlackBerry Messenger engaged its users more than the app despite having fewer users. Both BlackBerry Messanger and WhatsApp users exchange 10 billion messages a day on each platform at least according to a study by BlackBerry a month ago. However, BBM has a fifth of the users of WhatsApp at 85 million. Blackberry Messenger is preferred to other apps as they are more private and personal; the app doesn’t publish details like “last seen at”, one cannot pull out saved contacts of a mobile handset and add…
New Horizons Nigeria, has opened an international IT resource centre valued at over N100 million at Landmark University, Kwara State expected to empower students of the institution with the most sought after IT skills and professional certifications. Four years down the line, the school has invested millions of naira in ICT connecting classrooms, lecture halls, resident halls and offices with fibre optic cables to provide high speed internet. The partnership is in good time since every organization is now seeking competitive advantage as well as ICT enhancement platforms. The ICT centre is expected to open up minds of the youth…
Yahoo sites; Fantasy Sports, photo sharing site flickr will no longer be accessed by individuals using Facebook or Google log-in credentials instead users must have Yahoo ID. The change is a move to reinvigorate Yahoo which was once the web’s advertising leader before now rivals Google and Facebook. According to the company, Yahoo is continually working on improving the user experience, saying the new process will allow them to offer the best personalized experience to everyone.” The social media’s Chief Executive Officer Marrissa Mayer is currently striving to spark fresh interest in the company’s web products and to retrieve its…
South Sudan’s mobile operators stand to lose to the unending fights between government troops and the intensified rebels, after the country’s government ordered all mobile networks be shut down in the boarder state of upper Nile. According to Ateny wek Ateny presidential spokesman. The move is mainly for security purposes. “It was for security purposes. Anywhere in the world, governments have the power to do this, if there is insecurity it can shut the network. You cannot leave the network up in a place where there are rebels. You have to cut the network where they are,” said Ateny. The…
Pay-TV operator multi choice has partnered with Equity bank in a bid to offer set box financing to Kenyans ahead of analogue-digital migration. The move by the Multiplatform pay television operator will enable millions of Kenyans meet the analogue switch off date by easily purchasing leading technology infrastructure, that offers the latest television innovation at an affordable subscriber cost for both DSTV and Go-TV. “This timely financing partnership will ensure Kenyans are able to enjoy the benefits of digital entertainment from our brands with financial ease,” said Multichoice Kenya General Manager Danny Mucira. Interested equity customers will go through normal…