According to the report, global mobile networks generate over 50 Exabytes of traffic annually. The immense volume of traffic together with the growing adoption of open source Operating System (OS) platforms such as Android has opened up new security threats. Mobile malware, SMS spam, cyber attacks and unlawful eavesdropping are an ever-increasing problem for enterprises, consumers and mobile network operators around the globe.
Due to this, firms have had to increase their investments in integrated security appliances and content security gateways by both enterprises and mobile network operators, besides opening doors for emerging submarkets such as mobile Security as a Service (SEaaS).
On the devices front, installation of Anti-Malware/Anti-Virus client software is fast becoming a de-facto requirement for most smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, mobile device OEMs are also integrating advanced biometrics such as fingerprint sensing into their smartphones and tablets, amid growing popularity of security sensitive opportunities such as mobile payments.
Driven by the thriving ecosystem, SNS Research estimates that mobile device and network security investments will account for nearly $9 Billion in 2013 alone. The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 21% over the next 7 years.
The report presents in-depth assessment of the global mobile device and network security market, and covers four individual submarkets. Apart from covering key market drivers, challenges, future roadmap, value chain analysis, deployment case studies and vendor service/product strategies for each submarket, the report also presents comprehensive forecasts for the mobile device and network security market from 2013 till 2020. Historical revenue figures for 2010 – 2012 are also presented. The forecasts and historical revenue figures are individually segmented for four submarkets, 17 product/service categories, six geographical regions and 34 countries.
Mr Godzi pictured with Faith Musevenzi and Chianne Godwin, both from Telecel’s Sales Department, after handing to them the proceeds of Telecel’s fund raising activities.
Telecel Zimbabwe has launched a new fund to in a move to comba cancer, through promoting greater awareness of the disease, its early diagnosis, research into its causes and effective treatment.
Handing over to the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe a donation from the company, Telecel Zimbabwe Human Resources and Administration head Findros Godzi announced that Telecel had become a corporate member of the association and had established a fund to assist members of staff suffering from cancer.
He also handed over donations to two Telecel staff members who are suffering from cancer.
While the donation to the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe came directly from Telecel, the donations to the two staff members came from fund-raising efforts by Telecel and its staff during the month of October, which was National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
As part of these fund raising efforts and in solidarity with those who are suffering or had suffered from breast cancer, Telecel staff members purchased and wore pink ribbons during the month of October. They also wore pink every Friday. Those who did not wear pink paid a fine, which went towards the fund raising efforts.
The Cancer Association of Zimbabwe also held workshops at Telecel Zimbabwe head office.
Towards the end of October, Telecel held a Fun Run to increase public awareness of cancer and raise funds for victims of cancer. The Fun Run began and ended at Sunrise Sports Club in Harare.
Presenting the donations to the Cancer Association and the two Telecel staff members suffering from cancer, Mr Godzi pointed out that, despite advances in its treatment, cancer remained a terrible disease.
“Even though great advances have been made in the treatment of cancer and probably more people than ever before are successfully treated for it nowadays, there remain types of cancer for which there is no effective treatment. Moreover the treatment itself is often unpleasant, frequently causing unpleasant side effects.
“Often cancer is detected at too late a stage to be treated effectively, which is why early detection is important,” he said.
He commended the Cancer Association for the work it was doing in promoting cancer awareness and awareness of the symptoms to look out for that might indicate the presence of cancer. The earlier the cancer is detected, the better the chances of treatment in most cases, he said.
He said the association did a good job too in providing support for those who are suffering from cancer and in conducting research into the causes, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of the disease.
“Telecel believes the work that the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe does is important. We are happy to support the association and we have now become a corporate member of the association,” he said.
StartupBus Africa’s Sterio.me has announced a new partnership with Zimbabwe’s Higher Life Foundation making it the first startup from the batch to have real life commercial commitments.
Sterio.me will is set to partner with the institution for a pilot phase after the StartupBus trip. Founded by Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa, Higher Life Foundation manages thousands of schools and has agreed to give Sterio.me access to its schools. in the country.
Speaking to TechMoran, Christopher Pruijsen, Sterio.me’s partnerships and marketing lead and co-founder of StartupBus Africa said, “We are therefore the first startup on the bus to have real life commercial commitments. We will be raising funds for the pilot phase and I will be moving from London to South Africa and Zimbabwe soon to pursue sterio.me full time.”
Launched after less than 72 hours of work, Sterio.Me engages young rural African learners through a simple, teacher-generated, pre-recorded and free phone-call to reinforce learning outside the classroom. The startup aims to end the difficulties of engaging learners out of the classroom and an even bigger difficulty tracking their performance especially in Africa.
According to the team, there are some solutions on the market using data, video streaming among others which offer open-source and free educational materials, however not all learners have access to a smartphone or even stable data connections required to consume content. Using only GSM voice signal for quick quiz delivery, Sterio.me is able to cover almost the entirety of the African continent with pre-recorded lessons and SMS quizzes.
“When a learner texts this code, an automated and free VOIP call from our servers to the learner is triggered,” said Chris. “This VOIP call is interactive, including multiple-choice answers and open-ended questions in the same way a call from your bank would work, but with the familiar voice of your teacher. The teachers receive real-time analytics on our platform, which saves them time on collecting results and marking. These analytics empower teachers to measure how their individual learners understand class content, as well as providing regional and national comparisons with other learners using the platform, allowing long-term tracking and measurable learning improvement.
The free for teachers and learners platform also has a marketplace for teachers to share their Sterio quizzes amongst each other and aim to work with local celebrity-created content to increase learner engagement in education and public information via Sterio.Me.
Sterio.me aim to monetize from both professional Sterio creation and strategic advertisements.
Chris grew up in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is a former President of the Oxford Entrepreneurs and co-founded Startupbus Africa and FounderBus UK in addition to organising the April 2013 Startup Career Launchpad in London. He is a global advisory board member for the Kairos Society and has received numerous fellowships including World Economic Forum “Global Shaper” and membership in the Nexus Youth Summit community. He leads on partnerships and dabbles in marketing for Sterio.me
The other co-founder Danielle Reid, in charge of design and product, for Sterio.me grew up in Melbourne, Australia. She is also building Capsule.fm and product owner of the first showcase of Capsule.fm’s technology. Danielle is a member of Sandbox Network, being recognized for products such as Snapcat and is a mentor at Startupbootcamp Berlin. As designer for Sterio.me, she has worked on branding and front-end development.
Dean Rotherham, the third co-founder is in charge of product integration for Sterio.me. Dean was born in Johannesburg but now living in Cape Town and has a passion for making “stuff” do “things”
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara and Bollore Group President Vincent Bollore for the first time in Africa inaugurated Blue Solutions, the first autonomous electric bus line at the University Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan. The new means of transport that relies on 100 per cent electricity is expected to see the costs of fuel drop, reduce air pollution while it signifies advancement in technology, despite its high cost.
“It’s not the project cost, which amounted to 1.2 billion CFA francs (€1.8 million) entirely financed by the Bolloré Group, that is significant here but rather the confidence being shown in the Côte d’Ivoire by introducing at this point in time such advanced technology” noted Ouattara in an interview.
The launch of the new bus line comes at a time when the pump price for diesel fuel in Cote d’Ivoire was last reported at $1.30 USD according to a 2012 World Bank report. While means of transport including cars, trucks, buses, ships and trains account for 90 per cent of the cancer risk associated with air pollution, Blue Solutions claims to solve energy challenges facing Africa
Reports say health impacts from diesel pollution exposure, such as premature death, heart disease, asthma and bronchitis, recently cost at least $22 billion USD worldwide, not including impacts such as lost work and school days. Nevertheless, Bolloré Group has rolled out a seemingly innovative and reliable solution to develop clean transport services along with smart energy management through the development of a unique technology “LMP”, which, through its mobile and stationary applications is able to meet the major energy challenges.
Moreover, the Bolloré Group has chosen Côte d’Ivoire to inaugurate with great zeal some of Blue Solutions’ array of applications. The Group has offered the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan its first BlueBus network equipped with state of the art electric batteries. Also constructed within the university complex is a solar powered building fitted with these batteries and supplied exclusively by photovoltaic panels, say reports.
According to Vincent Bolloré , this new solution serves to ease trip-making throughout the campus. It combines the development of an electric bus network, with the installation of photovoltaic panels and the option of LMP batteries for storing solar energy.
This bus network, he says, will not only provide students and faculty with a higher-quality work environment, but also improves environmental protection by considerably limiting CO2 emissions – known to contribute to global warming.
For its African development efforts, Blue Solutions benefits from the Bolloré Africa Logistics Group, one of the continent’s most extensive integrated logistics network and leading operator of both port and rail public-private partnerships. As the new system of transport gains following, it is expected to travel to other parts of the continent, keen on witnessing advancement in technology while reducing fuel costs and air pollution.
Rocket Internet’s real estate online classifieds site, Lamudi is going live today in Tanzania in a move that will complete Lamudi’s expansion into East Africa. The Tanzanian site will join Lamudi Kenya, Lamudi Uganda and Lamudi Rwanda that were launched earlier this year. Lamudi is now present in 8 African countries and 14 countries globally.
Speaking to TechMoran Aneesa Arshad, CEO Lamudi East Africa said, “The size and growth of the real estate market in Tanzania is especially appealing for Lamudi which aims to be THE source of real estate information in Africa. “
There are currently a couple local classifieds sites, but none match the quality and reliability of Lamudi.
Going live with 250 properties, Lamudi Tanzania aims at signing up as many properties as possible by early 2014.
Launched this year, Lamudi is present in over in 12 countries including Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia and Uganda. Out of Africa, the portal is now live in Mexico, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Colombia .
The portal iams to be the go-to marketplace for property sellers, buyers, landlords and renters to be the ideal platform to find homes, land and commercial property online. Previously, Lamudi was called Vamido in Africa, Ubilista in Latin America, Zamudi and House in Asia.
Kenya’s top entertainment news site Ghafla has announced it will delete all the *nude photos it has in its database and won’t publish any such photo again in a u-turn move that has shocked many.
Known for its serial gossip on Nairobi’s entertainment scene and controversial photos of Kenya’s ‘celebrities’ and ‘socialites’ many of whom send in nude photos to court the site’s massive population of over 9.5 unsuspecting million youths monthly, Sam Majani said it was time to send new trends.
In a u-turn change of heart, as if struck by lighting Majani told TechMoran, “Yes, we are pulling down all those photos. We are the major entertainment site in the country and other bloggers look at us. We shall not publish any nude photos or run negative stories as long as they are not clean.”
To several readers, Ghafla’s huge traffic is due to the funny images and the controversial stories they post. To Majani, the traffic comes to them because they understand what their audience wants. Majani said the said that in all their stories published this year, nude photos are less than ten. His change of mind also has some other influences.
The site was begining to lose advertising deals from resposible corporate clients who felt by advertising on his site they were helping him endorse porn or immorality, CocaCola, (coke is my lunch companion) was one of them. Majani decided to take his frustration to his Facebook wall.
He posted “We lost Coca Cola cause of some socialite. Never again. No need to compromise our biggest clients for that.”
Ghafla’s situation is now so tricky. They will have to turn away this photos from some crappy socialites in town, turn off some of their readers who ravaged the site for such photos and are risking, as a crappy guy might take over their throne by opening a plan B for the socialites. However, at the end of the day, sane clients will come calling Mista Majani again. At the moment, the temptation is strong, his spirit is willing though but we want him to turn to images of cats instead like we did here and here.
Ghafla, first began as a RapGenius for Kenya, but slowly turned into entertainment news to fill in the gap that there was. News became so popular that even today the lyrics are the less viewed as the readers online turn to photos and videos but with the new found sanity, and the tyranny of numbers, the site will still reign.
The condom has been there for nearly five hundred years, and just like today, they have been used to prevent sexually transmited diseases and unwanted pregnancies.
“One of the oldest incontrovertible descriptions of a condom comes from 16th-century Italian physician Gabriele Falloppio, who lent his name to the Fallopian tube. Amidst a roaring syphilis epidemic, Falloppio recommended that men sheath their penises in specially treated linen, tied with ribbons. The doctor is said to have tested these linen condoms on 1,100 men, all of whom supposedly avoided contracting syphilis.”
However, Bill Gates wants to see something new. He has invested $100,000 into a team to develop the condom of the future. Through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill aims at making the condom awesome so as more people use it to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. The condom of the future will preserve or enhance pleasure and will be easier to use.
The foundation will see Benjamin Strutt and a team from Cambridge Design Partnership in the United Kingdom will design a male condom out of a composite material that will provide a universal fit and is designed to gently tighten during intercourse, enhancing sensation and reliability. While Willem van Rensburg of Kimbranox Ltd. in South Africa will test a condom applicator, the Rapidom, which is designed for easy, technique-free application of male condoms. Kimbranox will test an applicator designed to be applied with one motion, thereby minimizing interruption.
The new two are part of Bill and Melinda Gates’ Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) initiative which funds innovative ideas to tackle persistent global health and development problems. The winners were selected from 14 countries from over 2,700 proposals.
According to Chris Wilson, director of the Discovery & Translational Sciences team at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,“Grand Challenges Explorations is designed to foster the most innovative ideas to save the lives of the world’s poorest people. Although these five areas are very different, solving each one of these problems in new ways could make a huge impact.”
The foundation selected over 81 projects and each received $100,000 in funding to pursue its goal.
Others included;
1. Gisli Olafsson of NetHope Inc. in the U.S. will work to improve humanitarian information management in emergencies, such as after a natural disaster.
2. Wayan Vota of Development Gateway in the U.S. will combine data generated by citizens and governments into an interactive interface that can be easily accessed and used by average citizens to improve their communities in three Nairobi slums.
3. Mumbi Kimathi and a team from Farm Concern International in Kenya developing a mobile phone platforrm to promote farming-related trade between and around villages in rural Africa. Dubbed “e-Women Dial-up Initiative, the platform will be used for ordering and paying for farming-related materials, products, and services
4. Mustafa Ojonuba Jibrin from Nigeria working on a participatory reality TV show to promote the use of draught animals to help female farmers in Nigeria with plowing, ridging, and weeding.
5. Edwin Routledge from the UK, developing an artificial snail decoy to attract the parasite Schistosoma mansoni, which causes chronic disease, with the goal of reducing the numbers of humans who are infected.
6 .Judy Sakanari from the U.S. developing an inexpensive electromagnetic detection device to identify and diagnose parasitic worms to help infected patients get well faster.
7. Milosz Faber from the US developing a rabies vaccine that both protects dogs against rabies and reduces their population levels to control the incidence of human rabies. Human rabies causes 70,000 deaths annually and is mostly spread by dogs.
8. George Warimwe from UK’s University of Oxford developing a vaccine to protect a variety of species, including humans, sheep, and cattle, against Rift Valley fever, which can cause serious illness.
9. Abi Santhosh Aprem from India will continue work coating IUD devices with polymers to increase acceptance of this highly effective contraceptive device.
10. Olufunke Cofie from Ghana developing fortified fertilizer pellets from treated human excreta for market sale.
11. Andrew Shennan from UK, working on a new blood pressure monitor that uses solar power and requires little training to use. To field test in rural Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
Get more info on grant awardees can be found here.
The world is slowly embracing the EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) and Juniper Research has released a new report saying that 249mn cards will be used for contactless payments next year.
The report, Contactless Payment Cards: Market Prospects 2013-2018, says that the growth in usage will primarily be driven by early adopter markets such as Australia, Canada, Poland and the UK. After which user growth will be heightened by significant use in the US following the mandated transition from magnetic-stripe cards.
Growth in the UK had been sustained by ticketing and retail usage, says the report.With more than 3.5 million London bus journeys paid for through contactless payment cards since November 2012.
It also highlighted the strong retailer proposition offered by contactless reduced cash handling and increased customer retention allied to an opportunity to use contactless as a mechanism for greater consumer engagement in the form of loyalty cards.
However, the report cautioned that despite recent deployments, contactless POS (Point Of Sale) terminals still accounted for a small minority of the total in nearly all markets, meaning that opportunities for usage were still severely constrained.
The report’s author, Dr Windsor Holdensaid: “‘We’re still at a comparatively early stage in the consumer contactless journey. Awareness of – and confidence in – the technology needs to increase substantially before we move to true mass adoption.”
Other findings suggests that Growth is being fuelled by increased contactless transaction limits in key markets where multiple contactless cards are presented in a wallet at a card reader, it is possible for the wrong card to be charged
Last year, Forrester research issued a report stating that the pay-per-use model of cloud computing, in a scenario where application load varies over time, would always be a clear cost winner. The report was clear on the benefits of the cloud and hosting services, but there was, however, a clear caveat attached – perceived concerns around security, performance and reliability has left some business and IT managers simply more comfortable using their own in-house IT, regardless of the benefits of the alternative.
It was clear from the research that IT remains resistant and in certain cases, entirely opposed, to the hosted model. In-house IT departments, particularly in volatile environments like call centers, are employed to keep the technology up and running at all times. Unfortunately, this need for consistency is not conducive to the changes that this industry constantly requires.
The so-called “era of the customer” has meant that the marketplace can change at the drop of a hat. Being flexible and able to meet their demands can mean the difference between excelling or failing. Every minute, and every demand, counts.
It’s easy to paint a scenario – an operations manager may require a change to the existing tech, such as the introduction of a Workforce management tool. The in-house IT department (that is often under-resourced and placed under strict budget constraints) would have to approach their vendor to receive a quote, and spend a few weeks going back and forth to get the right pricing, and then – if approved, implement the system at a great cost and great risk. If that system proves to be of little use, they would have wasted a significant investment.
Change, in this scenario, is detrimental.
On the other hand, if that same operations manager had spoken to a hosted provider, the system could have been implemented within a matter of hours. Once activated, the tool could have been tested and even discarded with ease, at a low cost.
Hosting does not simply give business managers the opportunity to access technology that they may not otherwise be able to afford or implement – it gives business the opportunity to experiment. It’s scalable, instantly available and requires no investment in hiring, training or upskilling IT staff. They can freely diversify, test new technologies, explore new markets – without a significant capex investment.
Similarly, when dealing with in-house staff, there are no implications for not delivering an adequate service. When dealing with a hosted provider, there are contracts, SLAs and a relationship whereby the provider is required to maintain certain service level requirements at all times.
Control is not lost when handed over to an out-of-house provider – it’s intensified. Even if a company has devoted years to improving their security measures, in most cases, they are unable to access and afford the systems that a hosted provider can through simple economies of scale.
It’s apparent that business and IT goals are misaligned – IT requires a stable environment, business requires constant change to remain competitive. Hosting should not be seen as a threat to the in-house department, but as a way to give both parties what they need. Businesses are able to explore new markets and technologies through their hosted provider and IT departments are given extra time and resources to do much more than simply avoid disruption.
Business and operations managers should not be held ransom to the in-house IT model – there are alternatives. Once they start exploring their options, and taking ownership of the technology in their call center, they will find themselves not only running a business that is more flexible but also a lot more competitive.
Winners of South Africa’s first national business idea competition, 2013 have been announced today. This competition was aimed precisely at inventors and innovators.
The competition, sponsored by Sasol and Technology Innovation Agency of the Department of Science and Technology, received nearly 400 entries from innovators all over the country.
Winners were of all categories from the farm to the salon products to ICT, to chemistry and many more. they included a spray to rapidly detach braids from natural hair, a cattle “breathalyzer” that can diagnose diseases and eliminate blood tests, and a South African “drone” used for aerial firefighting.
The champions will take home a total of R4.5 million, prizes and benefits like coaching, mentorship, cash, tablet devices and business support from the Small Enterprise Development Agency.
“This has turned out to be the ‘Idols of innovation’ in South Africa,” says Project Director Martin Feinstein,Traction. “There is enormous innovation talent out there, coming up with concepts that solve real-world problems and have great commercial potential. The programme will assist them to link up with investors, as well as receive mentorship and coaching.”
Traction has partnered with a range of venture capital funds and entrepreneur support organisations, as well as Microsoft, the Innovation Hub, the SA Innovation Network and others.
As the festive season draws close, Telecel Zimbabwe has launched an SMS bundle promo in a move to allow its pre-paid subscribers to purchase short message service (SMS) bundles to cut costs on all local text messages.
Suscribers can either choose a bundle of 25 text messages at 20 cents and valid for one day or a one dollar bundle to send 250 SMSs for a week. Also subscribers can choose a three dollar bundle to send 400SMSs valid for 30 days. The promotion will run until December 31.
“For those who enjoy sending text messages, the savings realised from purchasing any of the TelecelSMS bundles are significant,” Telecel marketing director Octivius Kahiya said.
“For instance 20 cents would, at the normal standard rate of nine cents per text message, only allow one to send two SMSs. However a 20 cents SMS bundle would allow one to send 25 text messages.
“A dollar would, at the standard rate, be enough for 11 text messages. A one dollar SMS bundle would allow one to send 250 text messages,” he said.
The biggest saving is with the three dollar bundle. The standard rate would allow 33 text messages to be sent for three dollars. The three dollar SMS bundle allows 400 messages to be sent. It is valid for 30 days.
Interested subscribers should dial *404#, to go the menu then select the bundles they want to purchase using their airtime. A subscriber can only buy bundle at a time. The SMSs purchased within a bundle are for both on-net and off-net use. This means subscribers will be able to send bundle messages to any mobile phone number in Zimbabwe. International SMSs will be charged at normal peak and off- peak rates.
Though users are turing to smartphones Mr Kahiya said the SMS is still a relevant and useful means of communication.
The App gap in all Windows Phone is expected to be eliminated in by the end of next year, says the head of Microsoft’s Windows Phone.
Well, waiting for a whole year to get an app that’s on android phone has is not worth the wait, but they have made an effort because so far the list has become smaller since the beginning of the Windows platform.
In a message on his twitter account, Windows Phone boss, Joe Belfiore wrote that they will “look back on the end of 2014 as the ending of the app-gap for Windows Phone.” He added grandly that “the 3rd ecosystem is decidedly here!”
The gap has closed markedly in recent weeks, and the launch of Instagram on the WP OS today filled a much sought after gap in the app marketplace.
South Africa’s Port Elizabeth police have launched an innovative product to keep communication going between them and the public. The service has been initially launched at Humewood Police Station in the City.
The SMS solution provided by Vox Telecom will ensure that service provision for the city residence is improved.
“A number of police stations in the Eastern Cape have been making use of a Vox Telecom SMS service for some time now, mainly for internal communications purposes,” says Andre Joubert of Vox Telecom.
“Humewood wanted to use the service as a two-way communication tool between the police and victims of crime or members of community in general.”
“If a victim, for example, is told that his or her case has been closed, they can respond back with a SMS message to object. Or, if a victim of a crime remembers more details or even spots the suspect, he can respond back with a SMS to the police station with the latest information,” Joubert explained.
“The SMS is not only immediately routed to a dedicated resource and appropriate investigating officer, detailed reports are also sent to the Brigadier who can review communications and detect problems with the resolution of cases or poor service. That way, the public knows that their case is being given full attention.”
In Kenya, Chief Kariuki is well known for using tweets in communicating with the society.
Nigeria’s ecommerce platform, JUMIA has revealed that gamers in Nigeria prefer the PlayStation over Xbox. Ore Odusanya, Head of Gaming & Electronics JUMIA Nigeria said the brand is more widely accepted in Nigeria than the Xbox and he added that the average Nigerian gamer would go for PlayStation.
He said: “PlayStation is more widely accepted and Nigerians are more open to playing PlayStation games generally. The new Xbox is not yet out officially so we can’t say much about it. But generally, the average Nigerian gamer would go for PlayStation over Xbox.”
On the PS4 that the company is debuting in Nigeria, he said it is more than an ordinary gaming device; according to him, it is a complete entertainment system that has more improvements over the PS3.
“First is connectivity. PS3 only had Wi-Fi, but for the PS4 it has Bluetooth so you can connect it to iPhone, iPad and android devices. Another good thing about PS4 is sharing. You can share songs, games, and others. You can also download games on it which the PS3 didn’t have. It comes with a larger memory.
“You can place it sideways, better graphics and has an internal processor. It is a better gaming system and it’s not just for playing games, you can store all your movies, songs and others. So I will say it is a complete entertainment system and not just a gaming system,” Odusanya said.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) is set to launch U-Mall, its partnership project with Netplus Advisory in other African nations in which the bank is operating. This was revealed by Wole Faroun, managing director of Netplus Advisory in an exclusive chat.
He said the bank is the party that is “leading the thinking”. According to him, when the project goes live in other African nations, it would contribute significantly to the growth of businesses.
“Our vision for U-Mall is for it to become a big ecommerce solution that helps thousands of Nigerian business and indeed African businesses grow their businesses using the online channels,” he said. He added: “We are certain that we will have U-Mall implemented in other African countries where UBA currently operates.”
On the choice of UBA as partner for the U-Mall project, he said it is bank that is innovative in ecommerce.
“They are a leading bank and they have shown innovation in e-business and e-payment solutions so it was an easy decision,” Faroun said.
He said the number of companies on the platform is increasing and the companies are from various categories. Before a business is allowed on the platform, he said certain verification procedures are undertaken.
He said: “We got over 100 businesses in the first week of launch. It’s been increasing ever since – but because of KYC involved, it takes time for the actual site to be made available to customers. The bank needs to do verification of the businesses.
It depends on the business. It’s faster for current account holders because the bank already knows them. For new acct holders it could take a couple of weeks.”
Francis pitching at Venture Out Challenge 2013 held in Moldavia
Francis Onwumere is the business and product developer for Prowork Collaborative Product Management, one of Africa’s startups that participated in the 2013 VentureOut Challenge. In this interview, the developer spoke on how startups need to prepare for pitches, lessons learnt from 2013 VentureOut Challenge, and Prowork’s expansion plan for Africa.
Briefly talk about how Prowork came into existence
Prowork is collaborative project management solution for business. We observed that many businesses were losing productivity and money as a result of improvising their project management. Typically, project activities were scattered across different improvised media like email, SMS, Skype, etc. To keeping track was a lot of work. Now even when some companies paid a lot to license traditional project management software, adoption was very low across teams.
What solutions are you offering specifically?
We designed Prowork to be a unified platform for project management and collaboration. We made it easy to use, mobile and ubiquitous. Prowork is real time and available on mobile, web, API and SMS for offline scenario.
Prowork comes with full task management features; like scheduling, delegation, and workflow. Prowork also provides business insights like team performance tracking, reporting and predicting project risks.
We have a flexible billing system that fits different business sizes from small, medium to the enterprise.
How has the response been so far?
The response has been emphatic. We are growing very fast and we are working to keep conversion at par. Prowork has Over 10,000 users and a growing number of paying companies from mostly emerging markets.
Our target market is currently Africa, even though we still get subscriptions from all over the world, as can happen with cloud based software as a service (SaaS) platforms.
What was on your mind as you embarked on the journey?
Venture Out Challenge consisted of two parts, the internationalization workshop (3 days) and the Pitch sessions (3 hours).
Each Pitch (5 minutes) was interesting, unfortunately we didn’t win the prize for Africa.
The workshop was very engaging and with a lot of quality content squeezed in the 3 days, hardly any time for a breather.
Facilitating were:
Entrepreneurs who had successfully take their startup global (Amir Hasson of Oxigen, Phillip Kandal of Skobbler, etc)
Business model and entrepreneurship university faculty (Prof. David Kirsch of University of Maryland)
Investment legal counsel from silicon valley (Augie Rakow)
InfoDev and CRDF Global Facilitators
The workshop had a lot of practical take home, and a lot of value from interacting with entrepreneurs from across the world
Which skill set is essential for developers at such challenge?
I believe you have to think more of the business. According to Steve Blank – “a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model“. Venture Out is about scaling your business model, so you need to have some understanding and practice of the lean startup approach and the business model canvas
How did you prepare your pitch?
Each startup was assigned three mentors. Prowork had the help of Mobola Onibonoje of Alitheia Capital in Lagos, Saadiq Rogers-King formerly co-founder HotPotato and Nodejitsu in Silicon Valley, and during the event, Augie Rakow of Orrick Partners- a law firm that has many years of experience helping startups close investment deals.
The mentors, amongst many other things, listened to our pitch and helped us refine it.
How will it change how you run Prowork?
Luckily we had three days of Venture Out workshop with Professor David Kirsch, of the University of Maryland Business School, who has helped many startups adopt the lean startup model to scale their business.
At Prowork, we will be applying the lean startup learnings from this event, especially in the area of customer development.
Tech and business aside, how will you describe the challenge in terms of fun, and did you get to go round the city?
Moldova is a beautiful country.
Walking is very pleasant as there’s a lot of history and scenery. If you go to Moldova make sure you visit Milestii Mici, http://www.milestii-mici.md/en, one of the biggest wineries in the world.
Did you get any support from the Nigerian government?
Prowork is part of an accelerator programme, Tech Launch Pad, created by the Ministry of Communication and Technology of the Nigerian government, so we get a lot of support from them.
What should we expect from Prowork soon?
Better customer development, stay tuned.
You didn’t win the challenge. What do you think you could have done differently?
Pitching your startup is about communicating different aspects of your business model. We can always improve there.
Are you considering other challenges?
We are always focused on the business. If we find an opportunity like Venture Out to improve the business, we’ll take it.
Cape Town basedThundafund.com, an online crowdfunding platform, which has raised over R400 000 to fund 20 projects since June, will host an official launch at the Cape Quarter in Green Point, Cape Town on Thursday, November 28.
Since going live in June 2013, the platform has already raised over R400,000 for 20 projects and is driving crowdfunding in South Africa and its focus is on the funding of creative and innovative ventures.Thundafund is expecting that total to grow to as much R1 million over the next three months.
Thundafund’s three year goal, based on extensive global and local research and the sites development, is to have 3400 projects funded, R173 million raised and 10 000 jobs created.
According to Thundafund co-founder Patrick Schofield, “Crowdfunding has the potential to play a significant role in new enterprise development in South Africa and Africa. Thundafund.com is and will be at the leading edge of this wave.”
Crowdfunding has become a global force in funding new business ventures by leveraging the power of social media platforms to create start-up capital. Global funding collected through crowdfunding is expected to reach R50billion this year. Crowdfunding targets range from as little as R5000, up to the mega targets of over R100 million.
StartupBus Africa’s Benedikt Wahler, Maria Paskuda and Clinton Mutambo are working on GreenBack, a revolutionary solution expected to light up homes across Africa
In a statement to TechMoran Mutambo said the GreenBack Initiative, now at Starupbus Africa will mobilize the support a worldwide community of supporters to light up Africa and help African families pave their way to a greener future.
“Today, Sub-Saharan Africa is still the most energy deprived continent. Of 830mn people living there, only 29% have access to electricity,” said Mutambo.
“In rural areas that drops to a sad 12%. Some 115mn households are left only …with dirty sources of energy and light. And they are expensive: $ 10 per month go to kerosene lamps, candles and the like. A whopping $ 13.8bn, every year! This is where the GreenBack Initiative comes in.”
The team is building an app-powered points scheme that let’s one raise funds and pay for clean, solar energy for African families.
Everytime one purchases at participating sponsors, everytime one checks-in into the app and see an ad, and everytime one donates money or the rewards they have earned at loyalty programs, GreenBack points go to prepurchase energy units for African families.
Users can contribute what they can, where and when they can and in return give back to their communities.
‘Tichaa’, an app that teaches kids Kiswahili in a fun and engaging way emerged winner in the just concluded Safaricom AppWiz took home KES 1.7 Million for winning the education category and emerging tops overall.
Tichaa app was developed ‘Thirst Interactive’, and has attracted local and international interest and is currently on the Safaricom Appstore and Google Playstore.
M-Ledger, an application that enables customers to manage their M-PESA transactions; placed second in the challenge and took home KES1.2 Million. Other winners wereBud Doctor-which won in the health category,the Maasai Moran App which addresses the challenges faced by the Maasaiboy, My Taxi App which won in the games category and SOKONECT-an agricultural app.
The six six early stage mobile technology companies took home a cumulative cash prize of KES 3.7 million in the just concluded AppWiz Developers Challenge designed to help them start-up and partner with industry players in offering enterprise solutions. The challenge was anchored on entrepreneurship and capacity building within the mobile apps space.
The contest has been running for the last six months and attracted 1,569 applications and 274 mobile based ideas. 48 of this were shortlisted to attend a hack-a- thon session from which the top 18 teams were selected to participate in a 3 month incubation process.
“The search for sustainable growth is what has brought us here today. Innovation and growth are strongly connected and talking about one without mentioning the other is difficult,”said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.
“We can’t cut, spend or tax our way to better days.We need to learn how to quickly swim in these waves of transformation and speedily adapt our businesses, products and services to this change. At Safaricom we have chosen to remove all barriers that might keep anyone out of the information age. Ours is to develop a ‘digital nervous system’ that is quick to respond to these fast-changing demands of a digital age,” Collymore further noted.
So far, 10 of the participating teams have registered companies and some apps like Sokonect-an app that connects farmers to export companies and Smart County-a revenue collection app are already at the pilot stage.
The Appwiz Challenge was designed to help identify and develop successful early stage mobile technology companies. The goal of the competition was to help local developers form start-ups and partner with industry in offering enterprise solutions.
The competition received 1596 registrations and 274 mobile based ideas of which 48 were shortlisted to attend a Hack-a-thon session. Following the hack-a-thon, 18 teams were selected to participate in a 3 month incubation that involved providing the developers with a platform to nurture their talent further through mentorship.
Categories of the applications include; Health, Agriculture, Financial Inclusion, Productivity & Utilities, Games & Entertainment and Education.
Mentorship included support from experts within the industry as well as training on mobile application development, business opportunities within Mobile application development and ways of managing start-ups.
Participants were expected to develop applications in Agriculture, Health, Financial Inclusion, Education and Entertainmentas well as productivity and utilities. The Applications developed during the incubation stage will be uploaded onto the Safaricom App-store for commercialization by the developers.
The programme was open to university students and post university students with knowledge in IT, mobile application development and business management skills. It was also targeted at small and upcoming businesses with an interest in mobile apps development.
Winning Apps
Team Name
Application Name
Short Description
Category
Winner/ Category
Dynamic Data Systems
M-Ledger
M-Ledger is an application that transforms your phone into a financial journal from your MPESA transactions.
This application helps you find medical specialists from the comfort of your smartphone. Designed to help out in the tedious task of finding specialists, the app links to a database providing information on medical specialists who are normally difficult to locate.
Health
Winner – Health Category
Kikosi Limited
Smart County
This is an application system containing tools that allow revenue collection through the use of SMS and USSD. The application is hosted over cloud, and users are able to access reports on various devices. Target market is county governments.
Financial Inclusion
GAME 254
The Maasai Moran
The Maasai Moran is a casual game for mobile and web platform that depicts the challenges and customs that a Maasai boy has to go through to become a Moran warrior.
Games and Entertainment
Winner – Games Category
M-Safiri Experience LTD
My Taxi
MyTaxi is an App that allows you to book the nearest Taxi.
Winner – Utilities Category
AppBees Africa
SOKONECT
SOKONECT is a mobile application designed for use in the horticultural sector to promote production; marketing and consumption of fresh produce especially vegetables. The application acts as a link between exporting companies, small-holder farmers and consumers of fresh produce.
Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG a leading manufacturer of cleaning equipment, in conjunction with its local partners, Alibhai Shariff, will this year continue its global rally campaign in Kenya through the provision of cleaning services to the 60 teams that have registered for the 2013 East African Safari Classic Rally using state of the art cleaning equipment.
“We are excited that through our local partners, Alibhai Shariff, we get to be a part of the East African Safari Classic Rally. We will undoubtedly enjoy working with all the teams, and trailing Car No. 49 for the entire event,” explained Mr. Bode Dembele, Sales Manager Africa & Market Development from Kärcher. adding that exceptional motoring, both on and off the track is a product of good maintenance and innovation. And with constant improvements to technology and design, top-of-the-range services to drivers and conserve our environment by improving efficient use of resources is inevitable.
Kärcher has given support to rally teams at some of the most iconic global events, including the world-famous Dakar Rally. Over 3,000 washes were carried out during the Dakar Rally, with the pressure machines performing optimally in the harsh terrain. These pressure washers consume about 80 percent less water than ordinary garden hoses, ensuring maximum efficiency during use. In addition to this, the electricity and time savings provided offer drivers real value.
Kärcher, a family owned enterprise, a leading provider of cleaning technology with more than 50,000 service centres in many countries that supplies to customers all over the world. In 2012, Kärcher reached sales of 1.92 billion euros with 10.8 million units sold, the highest number of quantities in its history.
It is in the spirit of preserving Kärcher’s success at the Dakar Rally that they shall collaborate with the Alibhai Shariff team and erect cleaning stations at the Amboseli stop (parc fermé) on the 25th of November 2013 in Kenya. All arriving rally cars and support vehicles will receive a free car wash from a team of trained professionals using two models of the cold water high pressure cleaners: the G.4. 10 Petrol and the HD 6/15 C. Not only will these machines clean the cars thoroughly, but will do it in an eco-friendly manner, they say.
“We look forward to sharing our teams’ experience cleaning at the Amboseli stop, and to wearing the badge of the 2013 East African Safari Classic Rally,” explained Rafiq Shariff, CEO of Alibhai Shariff.
The Rally that kicks off today, is open to motor vehicles built before 31st December 1978. The Company shall indeed shadow Car No. 49 a Datsun 240Z, sponsored by Base Titanium Community Project during the grueling ten-day event. Car No. 49 will be driven by Asad Anwar and navigated by Kashif Shaikh. Asad’s knack on super specials has earned him the “Master of Spectator Stages” status, and he looks ready to making his mark in the 2013 Safari Classic.
“The East African Safari Classic Rally has gone a long way in reclaiming the position of the East African circuit, a position it rightly deserves because of its fecund legacy,” said Mr. Ashok Bhalla, the event manager for the East African Safari Classic Rally, “It is always a pleasure to see local and international companies dedicate their resources to the event, and our sponsors play a big part in ensuring the event is a success.”
An estimated 8 000 people who live in Enkanini, South Africa have had to rely on 36 taps, 60 toilets, no electricity, inadequate waste disposal and poverty stricken dwellings subject to floods and fires, inspiring the emergence of iShack, a sustainability project that utilizes solar power as a source of electricity.
The iShack is the result of an 18-month transdisciplinary research project by Stellenbosch University’s TsamaHub, an initiative of the HOPE Project, and the Sustainability Institute at Lynedoch outside Stellenbosch, in collaboration with the Stellenbosch Municipality.
The name iShack stands for “improved” shack as it entails cost-effective and sustainable modifications to the basic corrugated iron shack common in developing countries like that of Enkanini, Cape Town’s largest informal settlement with over 11,000 informal households in which families rely on communal services. Thus, this project has been designed to protect its occupants from extreme temperatures, and it features a solar panel for basic electricity needs, with rooftops slanted for rainwater harvesting that would cater for basic needs.
The project is the brainchild of Postgraduate students Ms Lauren Tavener-Smith, Mr Andreas Keller and Mr Berry Wessels stayed in Enkanini to collaborate with local residents on the design. Also involved in the project are the Informal Settlement Network (the local affiliate of Slum Dwellers International) and the Community Organisation Resource Centre. The iShack and the research around sanitation, water and waste is intended to contribute to the knowledge base around informal settlement upgrading.
“The materials and design were chosen based on affordability, accessibility and impact on thermal comfort,” Tavener-Smith doing her PhD in the economics of water upgrading in informal settlements, said in an interview.
The iShack has small photovoltaic panel on the roof for two interior lights, a motion sensitive exterior light and a cellphone charger. To maximise passive heating potential in winter, and provide shade in summer, the iShack is north-facing with a roof overhang while the windows are strategically placed on the north and east walls to let drafts in for better air circulation.
Indoors, a lining of disused cardboard boxes against the wall and roof is sprayed with fire retardant paint. Old long-life milk cartons are wedged between the cardboard and the zinc sheets for additional insulation notes Keller, who is doing his MPhil in Sustainable Development at the University’s School of Public Leadership (SPL).
The floor is made from bricks picked up at the nearby landfill site, and on one side there is a half wall made from mud and straw, which helps to smooth out temperature fluctuations.
“In the next phase we plan to introduce upgraded solar systems that can power household appliances,” Wessels, who is also doing his MPhil at the SPL said in an interview.
So far, Six Enkanini residents have been trained to install, operate, maintain and repair the iShack solar power system. It is envisaged that they will become energy entrepreneurs serving the community. Prof Mark Swilling, Professor in sustainable development at the SPL and Project Leader of the TsamaHub, noted that South African policy regarding human settlements has shifted from a once off housing intervention to an incremental approach of infrastructure upgrading.
However, partnerships between shack dwellers, local government and researchers is a requirement. Nevertheless, there are plans to scale up the project.
For more details, visit: www.thehopeproject.co.za/tsama
Dell has appointed Uganda’s Ashish J. Thakkar into the Entrepreneur-in-Residence Global Advisory Board after expanding its Center for Entrepreneurs globally starting in UK in celebration of the Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Thakkar founded Mara Group the pan-African multi-sector investment group at 15 years and this year won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award at the World Entrepreneurship Forum. With his experience, Thakar and the Mara Group Mentors have been helping build startups in Africa. His presence on the Global Advisory Board will help shape young business leaders globally.
“Entrepreneurs are the innovators and job creators of tomorrow, so we should do all we can to support and nurture their growth, particularly in developing nations like Africa,” said Thakar.
The Entreprenuer-in-Residence Global Advisory Board will work alongside the Dell Founding Entrepreneur-in-Residence Advisory Board to serve as a collective voice for entrepreneurs worldwide and lend strategic insight to Dell’s entrepreneurial initiatives.
Through the Center for Entrepreneurs, Dell is opening up its resources to start-ups in unprecedented ways to help fuel innovation and global growth, including giving select founders direct access to business feedback from Michael Dell via the Tech Innovation day: Pitch Slam taking place during Dell World 2013. Dell is kicking off an online contest today to locate the final technology startup to participate in the event.
The Dell Center for Entrepreneurs launched last year and includes the Dell Founders Club, a network for recently funded companies with immediate technology needs to scale quickly, with over 150 members and the Dell Innovators Credit Fund, a $115M debt capital financing program through Dell Financial Services for U.S. and U.K.-based venture and angel-backed startups that provides financial and technology resources to bolster speed-to-market and create jobs.
Thakar will be joined by Ido Leffler, co-founder of Yes To Inc., the No. 2 natural beauty brand in the U.S; Marcelo Sales, founding partner of 21212, a digital business accelerator headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and New York City; Catherine Graham, president and co-owner of RIGHTSLEEVE, and co-founder and CEO of commonsku, and Elizabeth Gore, resident entrepreneur at the United Nations Foundation.
Over three billion people world use open fires or wood charcoal for cooking producing black soot and toxic gases, leading to the premature death of 4 million persons yearly. That has lead to Emerging Cooking Solutions to design a state of the art cooking appliance that is gaining a following in Zambian households.
Emerging Cooking Solutions (ECS) humbly began in 2010 with 40 households, but now boasts of having the capacity to produce clean, renewable cooking fuel for thousands of households, as it works with customers such as Copperbelt Energy Corporation, First Quantum Minerals, Sandvik and SKF inspired to see an end to deforestation in Africa and and put a stop to the health hazards associated with smoky cooking.
Yet, a number of companies and non-governmental aid-organizations have focused on distributing clean cook stoves in developing countries. The introduction of modern solid-fuel stoves is one of the quickest ways to improve health and living conditions. But unique about this new design is by pelletizing unwanted agro- and forestry waste to upgrade a nuisance to a 100% renewable bio-fuel – and sell it cheaper than the competing unsustainable alternative – Charcoal, in turn reducing the effects of greenhouse gases and global warming.
Some six tons of virgin forest is destroyed when making one ton of charcoal. This can be replaced by less than 500 kg of pellets made from rice- or wheat husks, straw, peanut-shells, saw-dust or maize husks, concur innovators.
Yet, the Charcoal market in Zambia is worth more than USD 100 milion with very little or no tax-revenue generated for the country. A shift to regulated, sustainable and healthy cooking fuels will not only help save the forests and improve health, it will also create tax revenue for the continents continued development.
Gaining a following, a few individuals have shown an interest in the new life saving cookware. “We were recently given time at the end of church service at St Matthews Church in Lusaka to show our cooking solution. 600 people were amazed at this innovation that can help improve their lives,” said Mattias, “We also met with one of the church’s women’s groups the day before. About 20 out of 40 women signed up right away to purchase the stove, which will be paid in installments.”
Moreover, the organisation has recently received a confirmed order from one of the major micro financing institutes in Zambia, zealous about spreading the word on the new life saving cookware.
Android developers in Nairobi will on December 3 gather at the iHub for an Intel-hosted Android Codefest with an opportunity to showcase their skills, meet buddies and hack software and win prizes.
Intel is looking for developers with skin, guys/girls who have an app in the Google Play store under their name, and the app should have atleast 150 downloads or more.
But don’t worry, if you think you are great dev, sign up for the gig really fast and stand an opportunity to take home an Intel inside device, this could be a classy smartphone, a feather-light ultrabook, a slim-cute notebook or just anything with Intel inside. Intel doesn’t give hand-me downs, so you have to be really good to win their hearts. Better, you stand a chance to pitch your app to Intel Capital, a billion dollar fund with investments worth over $10.8 billion in over 1,250 companies. However, if you are a little lucky, we will fix you. You will walk home with a $5000 go-to-market package for selected apps.
Apartf rom just prizes, you will also learn to Add x86 support and WiDi to your Android apps and run GPA optimization.
Now, go tell your friends and enemies the fight is on. You can either come alone or with a friend. Carry your laptop, the one you have been developing your app from, and it should preferably be a Windows PC, (sorry if you have a Mac or Linux). Requisite software will be made available to registered participants only.
Francis pitching at Venture Out Challenge 2013 held in Moldavia
Briefly talk about how Prowork came into existence
Prowork is collaborative project management solution for business. We observed that many businesses were losing productivity and money as a result of improvising their project management.
Typically, project activities were scattered across different improvised media like email, SMS, Skype, etc. To keeping track was a lot of work. Now even when some companies paid a lot to license traditional project management software, adoption was very low across teams.
What solutions are you offering specifically?
If you’ve observed the field of project management over the past decade, there has been a shift to make project management in organizations a more concerted effort rather than have, that one gal or guy that had to literally go round teams and collect project activities in order to update the software.
To make project management more concerted you had to do a number of things. First it had to be easy to use, not rocket science. Secondly it had to be collaborative; the advantage is that you can have input from every team member as opposed to that one person that had to aggregate all project data as the project progresses.
Everyone in business today agrees that collaboration is a business imperative. However true collaboration can only be achieved if it the platform is ubiquitous.
So we designed Prowork to be a unified platform for project management and collaboration. We made it easy to use, mobile and ubiquitous. Prowork is real time and available on mobile, web, API and SMS for offline scenario.
Prowork comes with full task management features; like scheduling, delegation, and workflow.
Prowork also provides business insights like team performance tracking, reporting and predicting project risks.
We have a flexible billing system that fits different business sizes from small, medium to the enterprise.
How has the response been so far?
The response has been emphatic. We are growing very fast and we are working to keep conversion at par. Prowork has Over 10,000 users and a growing number of paying companies from mostly emerging markets.
Our target market is currently Africa, even though we still get subscriptions from all over the world, as can happen with cloud based software as a service (SaaS) platforms.
What was on your mind as you embarked on the journey?
Venture Out Challenge consisted of two parts, the internationalization workshop (3 days) and the Pitch sessions (3 hours).
Each Pitch (5 minutes) was interesting, unfortunately we didn’t win the prize for Africa.
The workshop was very engaging and with a lot of quality content squeezed in the 3 days, hardly any time for a breather.
Facilitating were:
Entrepreneurs who had successfully take their startup global (Amir Hasson of Oxigen, Phillip Kandal of Skobbler, etc)
Business model and entrepreneurship university faculty (Prof. David Kirsch of University of Maryland)
Investment legal counsel from silicon valley (Augie Rakow)
InfoDev and CRDF Global Facilitators
The workshop had a lot of practical take home, and a lot of value from interacting with entrepreneurs from across the world
Which skill set is essential for developers at such challenge?
I believe you have to think more of the business. According to Steve Blank – “a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model“. Venture Out is about scaling your business model, so you need to have some understanding and practice of the lean startup approach and the business model canvas
How did you prepare your pitch?
Each startup was assigned three mentors. Prowork had the help of Mobola Onibonoje of Alitheia Capital in Lagos, Saadiq Rogers-King formerly co-founder HotPotato and Nodejitsu in Silicon Valley, and during the event, Augie Rakow of Orrick Partners- a law firm that has many years of experience helping startups close investment deals.
The mentors, amongst many other things, listened to our pitch and helped us refine it.
How will it change how you run Prowork?
Luckily we had three days of Venture Out workshop with Professor David Kirsch, of the University of Maryland Business School, who has helped many startups adopt the lean startup model to scale their business.
At Prowork, we will be applying the lean startup learnings from this event, especially in the area of customer development.
Tech and business aside, how will you describe the challenge in terms of fun, and did you get to go round the city?
Moldova is a beautiful country.
Walking is very pleasant as there’s a lot of history and scenery. If you go to Moldova make sure you visit Milestii Mici, http://www.milestii-mici.md/en, one of the biggest wineries in the world.
Did you get any support from the Nigerian government?
Prowork is part of an accelerator programme, Tech Launch Pad, created by the Ministry of Communication and Technology of the Nigerian government, so we get a lot of support from them.
What should we expect from Prowork soon?
Better customer development, stay tuned.
You didn’t win the challenge. What do you think you could have done differently?
Pitching your startup is about communicating different aspects of your business model. We can always improve there.
Are you considering other challenges?
We are always focused on the business. If we find an opportunity like Venture Out to improve the business, we’ll take it.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation with over 166 million people and for any nation looking for human resource and a market for itts products, this huge population plays the answer, however according to the World Bank over 22 percent of this population is unemployed and even worse, the youth unemployment rate stands at 38 per cent.
Unemployment aside, World Bank added that between 12 per cent 15 per cent of the youth drop out of school despite Universal Basic Education (UBEC), adding that 16 per cent of the youth, some over 10 million persons, had never attended school.
However there is good news.
Microsoft and the The Future Project, a development initiative founded by the Nigerian youth engagement company Red Media Africa, have today launched ‘Aiki Nigeria’, a new youth employment programme to help young Nigerians get the skills to set up their own businesses or get jobs.
According to Ugochukwu Nwosu, Citizenship Manager at Microsoft for Anglophone West Africa,“Microsoft takes its citizenship engagement as primary to its work. In working with organisations, technology enthusiasts and governments at every level, we have emphasised the crucial importance of jobs for a new generation of Nigerians. This program is a major step in leading a coordinated solution to this urgent problem.”
Aiki Nigeria has been develped closely with employers to ensure ti offers employability requirements and later, the youths can take up job openings in this firms or be matched to other firms.
Aiki Nigeria has also launched a free online skills portal and career’s advice service, aiki.ng, to reach those in rural areas. Aiki has been designed to give secondary and tertiary school students with detailed information on how to start a business, job opportunities and accessibility, career tips, capacity building and networking.
Yung Nigerians also access training sessions and courses on personal development, consulting, entrepreneurship and project management, and offers one-on-one tailored advice from personal mentors from different occupational fields and mock interviews.
Chude Jideonwo, Executive Director of The Future Project and co-founder of Red Media Africa, said,”It is our ambition that through the new Aiki Nigeria programme we can help all young Nigerians, no matter where they are, to develop the skills they need to achieve their full potential.”
Launched five years ago, the Future Project invests in enterprise and expanding opportunities for young people. The enterprise support scheme aims to work with Microsoft to better build a community of talented job seekers and help match them to job opportunities and solve unemployment and related evils.
Digital imaging and printing solutions firm Epson will on November 26 sposnor the inaugural edition of Kenya Photography Awards in a bid to honour those who have contributed significantly to the growth and development of photography in Kenya.
The awards ceremoney will see the overall winner walk home with a Stylus Photo 1410 A3+ printer while all photographers will print their photos from Stylus photo R2000 and L800 printers which Epson will avail at the venue.
The awards launched in September were organized by the Photographers Association of Kenya together and PAWA 254, a social enterprise through which innovative professionals from diverse artistic fields exploit their creative genius to foster social change.
Mukesh Bector, Regional Sales Manager for East Africa in a statement issued this morning said, “As the Kenya photography awards present a platform for photographers to showcase their exemplary work to the world, Epson is dedicated in ensuring that this work is presented in high quality by the near dedicated Epson photo printers.”
With Claria Ultra High Definition Photographic ink, the Stylus Photo 1410 assures of bright, vivid images which are resistant to fading, have smooth tonal gradation and fine detail. These make it to be one of the most valuable assets for the digital photographer. Other features of this printer include direct printing from a camera, CD/DVD printing, 6 individual ink cartridges and ink droplets as small as 1.5 picolitres due to the MicroPiezo print head.
On its part, the Stylus photo R2000’s eight-colour ink set takes advantage of Epson’s high-gloss encapsulated pigments including a gloss optimizer. The printer automatically selects Photo or Matte black ink for the best results on glossy, matte or fine art media.
The Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NigComSat) is set to provide tele-medicine services to improve healthcare delivery in the country.
Tele-medicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical healthcare at a distance. It will close the distance gap between health care providers and the public, especially in the rural areas.
The firm said that any medical assistance can be accessed even outside the country and will equally assist medical experts to do cross consultation among themselves without having to travel out of their location,” it said.
On e-banking, the publication affirmed the confidence the organization has on that the telemedicine concept.
The satellite is believed to create a world of difference in the banking industry with will create more seamless services in the country, as it will make it easier and effeicent banking services for the citizens of Nigeria.
“Online banking services are going to become a common place in Nigeria because the launching of the satellite will provide the much needed capacity to ensure a highly reliable online banking system. It will also save the country millions of dollars being transferred out of the country as fees for leasing huge capacity from other international operators. `We can proudly say that we are self-sufficient in that aspect in our country,” said NegComSat.
A new partnership between Opera Software and Airtel will see Airtel subscribers choose mobile data package they can afford and pay for them depending on time used or the site they visit.
The time-based or site-based pay-as-you-go service dubbed Opera Web Pass will be launched in 17 countries across Africa.
To access the service, subsribers have to start Opera Mini on their mobile phone, select 1 for “Opera Web Pass” in the Speed Dial start page and choose from a list of web pass subscriptions, allowing them to purchase packages that suit their internet access needs.
In a statement to TechMoran Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer at Airtel Africa said, “Opera Web Pass will make a significant difference to our customers’ ability to buy data bundles easily and in a way that suits them. We have enjoyed a beneficial relationship with Opera and seen growth of the Opera Mini browser across our 17 markets in Africa”
The Opera Web Pass uses the existing capabilities of the Opera Mini platform and allows Airtel, in a flexible and cost-efficient way, to package time- or site-specific data offerings to their users, say for a certain period of time or for a website. Mobile subscribers without data plans can also use the service to access the web by choosing an exact time period to access the web, rather than the amount of megabytes.
The firms believe Opera Web Pass will liberate users, streamline mobile internet, make it non-intrusive and easy-to-use. It can also help monitor and optimize web passes and campaigns in near real time making almost any phone on any platform web friendly.
Lars Boiolesen, CEO, Opera Software said, “At Opera, we believe that access to the web is a universal right. Partnering with market leaders such as Airtel has offered us the opportunity to help lower the barriers to access the mobile web and empower more African users to get online.”
Google’s App store has grown significantly and financial analyst, Citygroup’s Mark May, has predicted that the search engine giant will harvest $1.3 this year.
The analysis say that in this year there will be just over 900 million Android devices, and even though that Android consumers spend less on apps than their Apple counterparts (as believed), he still expects the average revenue per user to be about $4.59.
This collectively results to total revenues for Google Play of $4.2 billion, of which Google takes a 30 percent share which is about $1.3 billion, before its own hosting/management costs.
Mark further estimates that in the next four years, Google Play revenues will reach at least $17 billion, resulting in Google taking a slice of $5.2 billion from the sale of mobile apps.
Adding in the revenue from mobile advertising, then Google’s Android investment will pull in at least $7 billion a year by 2017.
A new report by Research and Markets dubbed “The Mobile Device & Network Security Bible: 2013 – 2020” says the global spending on mobile device and network security infrastructure, software and services will hit Acc$9 Billion by the end of 2013.
