According to the Media Foundation of West Africa, the Gambia government has warned that it might restrict online freedoms in the country.

The foundation alleges that the Head of Civil Service and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Momodou Sabally, has given notice to higher authorities, religious leaders and cabinet members at the official seat of government, the State House.

The Minister, consequently warned Gambians, particularly the youth against participating in online campaigns against the government. “If you cannot say anything good about the country, then you should keep quiet,” he exclaimed.

The media foundation has also stated its objections to the new laws that aim to restrict the critism of the government through online media.

The law imposes a jail term of 15 years and/or a fine of three million dalasis (about US$90,000) on persons who criticize government officials, caricature or instigate violence against the government through the internet.

“We call on the religious leaders to recognize the importance of the internet, which remains the only platform for freedom of expression and participation in public discourse among Gambians, as traditional media outlets are already cowed from airing programmes which are critical of the government,” the foundation said in a statement.

This comes months after the Gambian government issued a warning about banning online dating sites and the use of Skype before quickly retracting the statement.

As Malawi is hosting the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) summit, the country is in the process of testing banking transactions using two regional electronic payment systems which are under COMESA and SADC.

Mbane Ngwira, the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) spokesperson said the country will soon fully go live on the two systems which will significantly aid international trade and expected to cut costs.

 “There have not been any major problems in the implementation of the two regional payment systems,” he said.

The spokesperson explained that after fruitfully testing the systems they will engage the business community on a sensitization campaign before the system would be ready for launching.

“RBM has made progress and has already opened two accounts in Dollars and Euros. What is remaining now is to connect to commercial banks,” said Mbane.

The RBM’s Payment System 2012 Annual Report has also captured the development; it says that the SADC Integrated Regional Electronic Settlement System (SIRESS) is a project being developed to settle transactions including real time credit transfers, interbank loans and foreign exchange deals.

The COMESA’s Regional Electronic Payment Settlement System (REPSS) will, however maintain intra-regional trade through gross real time settlement hence economic growth within the region according the report.

“It will also be used for SADC direct debits, SADC card and ATMs, and SADC securities,” the report says before noting that the SIRESS legal agreements on the project were scheduled to end end-February 2013 but go on live preparation by July 19 and go live by July 22.

According to the report stakeholders are currently evaluating participants’ agreements with the COMESA clearing, final test runs are earmarked for June 2013 and the country is expected to operationalise REPSS by end August 2013.

Health services in Africa will have a boost from ZiDi an innovative cloud based service that allows doctors to have real time information about their patients.

ZiDi by Microclinictech that is currently in Beta phase has reported good results from clinics in Kisumu and indicate that health workers are enthusiastic over what the product can do to improve their services.

The service also provides inventory management for medicine and also can detail medicine recommended for any patient and can be accessed through mobile phones and tablets. The service can run offline, to ensure data is collected throughout, even in regions where there is no data coverage.

“ZiDi is the first enterprise m-Health solution designed specifically for lower levels of care in Africa – i.e., for dispensaries and health centers and outpatients department of sub-district hospitals,” Moka Lantum Managing Partner at MicroClinic Technologies said.

Lantum said that, “ZiDi was designed to address the needs of health workers and health managers – notably, improve commodity securities by empowering nurses with an easy to use solution for quantification and ordering essential supplies; fostering accountability for human resources, materials and out-of-pocket fees collected from patients; and promote adherence to clinical guidelines recommended by the ministry of health.”

More companies in Africa have been using relevant technologies such as the mobile phone to implement ehealth initiatives to help low income communities to access health services.

Earlier this year Vodacom South Africa launched mHealth service in association with Mezzanine Ware. Some of the solutions can be accessed through mobile devices such as phones and tablets, so that workers can access rural areas and gather information.

“Our goal is to continue innovating and adding features that minimize the administrative burden on health workers as well facilitating resource planning and the involvement of stakeholders in data-driven decision making. Our next major update will facilitate remote monitoring of quality of care, especially for deliveries,” Lantum said.

U.S. Agency for International Development and the Eastern Congo Initiative have launched a video database that will enable aid agencies to gather necessary information on the region.

“Data-driven insights are critical to creating effective and efficient partnerships,” said USAID’s Acting Director for the Office of Innovation and Development Alliances Ricardo Michel.

“We are pleased to recognize organizations like the Eastern Congo Initiative that are leveraging technology in the service of international development and working to increase access to information that will lead to more informed funding and programming decisions.”

The challenge with the region was that there was lack of relevant information for aid agencies and other organizations looking to set up in Congo.

USAID and the Eastern Congo Initiative conducted an analysis of community based organizations in Maniema, Orientale, North and South Kivu provinces.

“The result is a report and online database that gives policy leaders, investors and analysts insights into the work being done to create sustainable and successful change in Eastern Congo,” USAID stated. 

MTN Nigeria has revealed that their earnings and subscribers numbers have increase, supporting the Nigeria’s Communications Commission (NCC) who stated that the mobile subscribers have grown to over 120 million.

Mobile service provider MTN is still well in the lead in terms of the rising numbers, with over 55 million of the country’s citizens on its network. The NCC revealed their Quarterly Summary of Telecoms Subscribers in Nigeria (Sep ’12 – Jun ’13), and showed that MTN had 7.6% growth over the quarter.

In second place came Globacom who has managed to beat out Airtel by more than 4 million subscribers in the highly connected country.  Since last year in September, Globacom and Airtel have been locked in a vicious supremacy battle for the second most popular mobile operator in the West African country.

NCC stated that Globacom ended the quarter with a 4.9 percent increase to over 25-million subscribers while Airtel lost 8.7 percent of their subscribers ending the quarter on 21.5-million users.

The top 5 mobile operators in Nigeria are rounded out by EMTS Limited with 15.3-million subscribers for the quarter, while M‐Tel Limited managed to sustain 258,520 subscribers. The top 5 mobile operators make up 117.41-million subscribers of Nigeria’s mobile landscape of 120.36-million.

With the introduction of Esoko to the farmers of Malawi, comes a great profit thanks to this project which was started in 2011.

Esoko with “E” standing for electronic and soko fro market was started I order to equip farmers who have little bargaining power, with a tool that provides them with current market information.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is still fascinated by farmers in Lilongwe whose lives changed completely when they embraced modern cellular communication technology.

Usaid has worked with several organizations including Umodzi Consulting and Esoko Networks through markets linkages project which has helped farmers to access information on how and where they can sell their farm products at competitive prices.

One farmer called Raboin described Esoko as a tool that costs relatively little. He said that it adds substantial value to the organizations and programmes in which it is well utilized as with Esoko, farmers can send information to thousands of people with just the push of a button.

“Price information helps farmers to make informed decisions about where, how much and when to sell their agricultural produce and by allowing farmers to receive information, Esoko has helped to increase market transparency,” he said.

Raboin said Esoko is makes certain that access price information for agricultural commodities in a timely manner has brought the difference between prices that bring about poverty and a price that can lift someone out of it.

Esoko information technology manager Peter Pemba said the need for timely and accurate information was what compelled Agriculture Commodity Exchange for Africa (ACE) to use Esoko in April 2011.

Kenya’s Safaricom has donated Mini GSM network laboratory equipment for the JKUAT Engineering and Telecommunications Laboratory with the latest telecommunication technology aimed at ensuring the students are well prepared with practical skills for application in the industry.

JKUAT (Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology)is  the leading technological public university in Kenya that offers an array of academic programmes in engineering, agriculture, built sciences, health sciences and enterprise development among others.

The donation entails a full GSM equipment suite consisting of a Base Station, BSC Microwave Link and Switches which will be used to establish a functional GSM network and transmission system to be used during practical lessons by students taking courses in mobile communication, data communication and transmission courses.

The Mini GSM network will enable students to initiate and terminate a phone call, enable data transfer and basically conduct any service that Safaricom is capable of making for academic purposes thus preparing them adequately for a career in telecommunications engineering.

This is the first of its kind in East and Central Africa effectively making JKUAT the Destination University for aspiring Telco professionals.

“The laboratory will transform the way Telecoms practical training is offered at the University and impact not only on the students, knowledge and capabilities building but also the University and the Industry as a whole. The telecoms industry needs graduates who have developed the right skills before joining a workplace and this initiative will equip them with the necessary skills and competence needed,” said the Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.

JKUAT’s Vice Chancellor Prof. Mbale Imbuga hailed the partnership with Safaricom as a standard for corporate/academia partnerships. The Vice Chancellor noted that the initiative had instrumental in the development of telecommunication training and research which JKUAT has been spearheading since 2003, when the University introduced the undergraduate programme in telecommunications and information engineering.

“This laboratory will provide the much needed practical and research orientation to students and faculty and thus increase their competitive. This will make JKUAT the University of Choice for aspiring telecoms professionals in East and Central Africa,” said Professor Imbuga.

Safaricom and JKUAT have been I partnership for five years after they signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2008 with the aim of enhancing development through research, training, innovation and technological development in the areas of communication technology and information.

Through this partnership, the Telco sponsored the development of curricular for the Bachelor of Science in telecommunication technology and information.

The South African government has launched a massive eLearning programme that will see 2,200 institutions in Gauteng benefit from a distribution of 88,000 tablets for school kids.

Each schools shortlisted for the programme will receive 44 ten inch Huawei devices.

This new initiative is a part of the review of the Gauteng Online Schools Programme. The new programme is expected to be launched in January 2014, a date that the Kenyan government has also put up as the laptops per child programme kicks off.

“This comprehensive review of the GoL programme resulted in the much needed alignment of the e-Learning methodology to global norms and standards,” a statement from the government read.

The programe also secured connectivity contracts that include Wi-Fi providers and 3G networks for a period of two years.

“The service provider will also identify an emerging youth owned ICT company, and shall transfer network development, maintenance and support skills to them over the 2-year period. This empowerment effort will eliminate the current sole service provider status, and thus improve supply side measures in this monopolistic industry sector,” the government stated.

The project is set to cost the government, ZAR289 million for tablets and ZAR396.2  million for network and coverage for two years.

“The future classroom will result in all learners using their own devices (e.g. tablets, smart phones, netbooks etc.) that would contain all their e-Books and grade specific curriculum content,” the statement said.

“Besides, through the use of specialised software packages, we will be able to personalise educator-learner encounters, and thus expedite constructive interactions to maximise learning experiences. Likewise, learners will easily access libraries, instead of spending a limited amount of time every week in a physical computer laboratory.”

Throngs of people with knives on sticks and BB guns at marketing promo would easily pass for a scene in “You’re Next” one of the top 10 horror movies of 2013. But the scene which was played out a park in the South Korean capital was not staged; it was a marketing promotion gone wrong.

The giant electronics manufacturer had filled up hundreds of balloons with helium, and attached vouchers for free G2 units to them before letting them ascend into the clouds. The smartphone- aficionados turned out with guns and knives on sticks to pop the balloons and claim a voucher for a free LG G2 – the new phone retailing for the equivalent of £550 (excluding shipping costs).

In an attempt to shoot some of the balloons down prematurely, a scramble for the swanky device ensued and got about 20 people injured according to the Korean Times. One local TV station called the scene ‘World War G’ after the Brad Pitt zombie movie ‘World War Z’, with people pushing others to the ground in their scrum to get a free phone.

BBC reports that there were 100 vouchers for LG’s new G2s inside the helium balloons. Some of those scrambling for a free handset had to be hospitalised, and LG has since announced it would cover any medical costs. One local TV station called the scene ‘World War G’ after the Brad Pitt zombie movie ‘World War Z’, with people pushing others to the ground in their desperation to get a free phone.

LG said in a statement that it would cancel all further planned promotional events. But why would one risk arm and limb for a smartphone? The G2 is undoubtedly LG’s most ambitious smartphone yet and its most serious attempt at toppling its Android rivals.

It is the first smartphone handset to come without side buttons. The concept came from research which revealed that the larger smartphones became, the harder it was for users to access side keys, the company said.

The G2, which will run an Android operating system, is also notable for its 5.2 inch full HD display, with a wider screen than equivalent devices because of the extra space afforded by removing buttons from the side.

Equipped with powerful specs, this G2 makes the Korean mobile company’s previous flagship, the Optimus G look like a Boy Scout experiment. Not only does the new G2 sport a 13-megapixel camera like its main rival, the Samsung Galaxy S4, it also runs Android 4.2.2 and has a vivid 1080p HD display. Uncommonly, and not completely comfortably, its volume rocker and power buttons are located on the phone’s back.

In addition, the G2 is the first globally available handset to have Qualcomm’s lightning-quick Snapdragon 800 processor for all models and providers, not just a select few. LG’s G2 packs in a trove of choice hardware, including the aforementioned quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU clocked at 2.26GHz with 4G LTE Advanced.

The G2 is a speed demon Menus fly by with almost blinding swiftness while apps and home screens opened and closed in the blink of an eye. Yet, fancy quad-core Snapdragon silicon isn’t the LG G2’s only distinguishing feature. Backing up the phone’s muscular processor are 2GB of RAM and a dedicated allotment of memory specifically meant for handling graphics chores (called GRAM).

This is the first phone that has such a feature, an observation LG reps are eager to point out, and one that gets mobile games fans drooling over the G2’s potential for mobile gaming.

It comes with a 13 megapixel camera and has Hi-Fi playback which LG claims can reproduce “studio-quality sound, far superior to a CD.” The phone answers calls automatically when placed to the user’s ear. LG is the third best-selling smartphone producer in the world, behind Samsung and Apple, according to market research.

The South Korean company will be hoping the new design can help it catch up with these giants of the smartphone market. Despite shipping a record 12.1 million handsets over the period its results were let down by weak television sales. Analysts have said it would take a hit smartphone device to boost the company’s profit and G2 device might just be it.