Currently, at least 50 percent of the entire populations in 38 of the 49 sub-Saharan countries live without electricity — worse off, 51.4 million of 54.3 million people (94.7 percent) living in Liberia, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Sierra Leone and Malawi do not have electricity.
Eternum energy, founded by Siten Mandalia, creates new opportunities for the more than 1 billion people who live without access to modern forms of energy. Through their pay-as-you-go solar energy platform called Solaris, sustainable and scalable energy to rural households and businesses are paid for through regular mobile payments, aligning with current expenditure on energy, and making it affordable to everyone.
Their smart technology and robust distribution model allows them to deliver clean lighting, communication, enterprise opportunities and access to finance to rural populations across the developing world. Initially providing clean lighting and phone charging, so children can continue studying after dark and the dangers of kerosene can become a thing of the past. While also providing more appliances so that their customers can use it to start new businesses, from charging their neighbor’s phones to opening a barbershop.
Solaris has already reached its 900th system installedin the off-grid countryside of the north of Tanzania, providing flexible access to electricity to nearly 5,500 people in 2016. With local success in Tanzania, those working in Solaris hope to see even larger growth expanding abroad.
“With the Solaris Offgrid CRM we are now able to collect and manage data of nearly 1,000 clients. The features evolved as we grew, which is quite useful when you are managing a fast expanding start-up like ours! Thus, we rely on the platform…to help us deliver an equivalent (high) quality of service at 10,000 installations, allowing our staff to keep gaining in efficiency when managing their daily tasks deep in the bush.”, says Charlène Giraudier, Country Director of Solaris.
In order to reach their customers they are building a flexible and robust distribution network. Their network of shops build awareness and create a prominent local presence as well as providing a base for our local operations.
Safe, reliable solar energy can do more than just (literally) change the way we see things. It’s been observed that as a direct result of better access to energy, children can spend more time studying after dark and therefore perform better at school, for example. It’s no surprise that solar-powered lights effectively cut out the toxic kerosene fumes which are currently to blame for 4 million deaths a year, as well as dangerous levels of CO2 emissions.
With the projected Solaris use over the next five years alone, we can avoid over 15 megatons of CO2eq emissions. For more information click here.
It’s not news that the healthcare system in Nigeria faces a lot of challenges, and a lot of Nigerians do not find this easy. Getting to see a doctor sometimes require days of visits to the hospital. But with technology, attending to your health has become really easy.
1Dokita was launched to enable Nigerians book doctor’s appointments from the comfort of their homes. Through the 1Dokita platform, driving around in search of a hospital and waiting endlessly for a docyor no longer applies. The platform makes it possible to see a doctor whenever the need arises.
With the electronic health records available on the platform, doctors can store the health details of patients, making it possible for detailed assessment of a condition, as well as quick and more efficient treatment. The health records also make it easier for healthcare providers to follow up and track continuing care of patients who are both under their supervision and under other healthcare providers. This means, if a patients is going abroad to see a specialist, they also have access your health records.
The 1Dokita platform also enables users to order medicines, either for collection or to get it delivered to their doorsteps. They can also chat with healthcare professional anytime, anywhere.
To use the platform, all you have to do is, select your location, select your provider, book your appointment and see your doctor.
Healthcare professionals or a private clinic can also register on the platform as individual providers. Once registered, they get automatic appointment scheduling, which enables patients schedule their appointments with them directly at the click of a button.
1Dokita also provides a healthcare provider package for hospitals and clinics with more that one doctor or any other healthcare services with more that one healthcare professional. Through the platform, they can efficiently track volume of patients being seen, duration of each appointment, average revenue per index consultation, investigations being ordered and why.
Like 1Dokita, a number of startups provide similar service, making access to healthcare easier. These platforms are providing real solutions, and would no doubt contribute significantly to improve the health industry in Nigeria.
UrbanErrands, a startup based in Nigeria, is a one-stop concierge for busy people. Its initiative is to help you finish that time consuming to do list and focus on more important things.
UrbanErrands was inspired by the founder, Ifeanyichukwu Ngobili’s inability to find the time to refill a home cooking gas cylinder for more than 14 days due to the demands of his 9-5 job. At that point, he thought to myself, “shouldn’t there be an outfit which connects busy persons to unemployed persons willing to run errands to earn a living?”
He isn’t the only one. There are 25 million middle & upper class persons living in Nigeria’s commercial cities, with an average upper & middle class family in Nigeria employing an average of 2 domestic staff a year.
Whether you’re a busy professional, a stay-at-home parent or a world traveler, daily errands can be overwhelming, especially in a large city where fighting traffic or waiting in lines can be time consuming and frustrating. UrbanErrands can help with tasks from picking up your dry cleaning to waiting for the cable guy while you’re at work.
Born out of passion to bring productivity and promote play time for busy clients, UrbanErrands intends to help you fix a faulty tap in the kitchen; pick up your prescription drugs; help you pack into your new home or office; or even pick up your laundry on that very busy day. Offering affordable in-door and outdoor ‘errand services’ for individuals and corporate organizations across Lagos, Nigeria.
Prior to selection, they place their potential service personnel (who they call the TaskRunners) through very stringent background and professional capacity checks and ensure that only the best persons are put on stand-by, ready to serve you. From which, the company takes a 20% commission on every task executed.
Keeping tabs on social media along with a busy schedule doesn’t comes easy. Even with apps that enable you schedule posts, growth and engagement is usually not possible without adequate attention. This is why many busy entrepreneurs outsource the role to social media managers.
But guess what? There’s now an app that’ll not only help you manage your fan pages, but also monetize it.
Launched in January 2013 by Henry Azubuike, PeerZux is a social media content aggregation and brand marketing application.
From posting on your behalf, to helping to drive engagement, PeerZux promises to handle all your social media hassles. The platform offers multiple opportunities for creating and posting content that’s guaranteed to get viewed, shared, liked and re-shared.
With its EngagedShare feature, it pulls up unique recently trending content from all over the web based on your settings and the KeyWords/Tag you select, then posts them to your Fanpage(s).
Through the Fan Alert feature of the PeerZux Tab on your fanpage, your fans get an alert each time a new content is posted, thereby guaranteeing views, clicks & shares on every post.
Users can add unlimited amount of Facebook Pages and set them all to be managed by the PeerZux app. According to the team, “you’ll never need to log into Facebook to add content to your Fan Pages again—posting and scheduling is handled within the dashboard.”
For Facebook marketers, PeerZux promises to be the fastest way to get fans and build massive brand engagement. For brands, it promises to be the fastest way to reach targeted audience and make a Brand Statement.
What’s more? With the PeerZux Ad Platform, you can buy Nigerian Facebook inventory targeted by Cities and States. This, according to team is currently not available on Facebook Ad Platform or on any of Facebook’s third party ad partners.
To use the platform, simply connect your Facebook profile, install the PeerZux tab on your Facebook Page(s), carry out all required settings, then leave the app to work and focus on other important stuff. PeerZux also promises that the content engine will never post to your personal Facebook account directly, and posts on your pages will only be as directed by you.
How your pages are monetized? The team claims that revenue is generated on every engaged visit to the PeerZux Tab. The app currently runs on only Facebook, with plans to include other social networks soon.
Google Allo is the search giant’s answer to WhatsApp, they are both instant messaging apps that run on all popular platforms. Allo is still very new and they have been playing catch up with other established chatting apps. WhatsApp on the other hand has been very bare bones in terms of features and only until recently that they have been catching up as well.
The latest upcoming Google Allo features include the ability to react to individual messages. If you in a group chat and someone posts something that appeals to you, you can show it by ‘hearting’ that message. It is similar to the way you can like posts on Facebook. At the moment, you can only use a ‘love heart’ symbol but we hope in future they can introduce more reactions, same way Facebook does.
We all know there’s always that annoying person in every WhatsApp group who keeps posting inappropriate/ irrelevant texts, it would be amazing to show them exactly how you feel with a simple reaction icon.
The second feature is a web client of Google Allo. This one has been tagged as coming ‘in a few weeks’. We have all used Google products on the web from Gmail, to Google Search, to Keep and Drive. These are all amazing products with great and accessible online versions. On the other hand, if you have tried using WhatsApp Web version, you will agree with me that, it’s a pain. You have to scan a code on your browser, then (and this is the most annoying part), you have to turn on the data on the phone which has WhatsApp installed in order to access the service on a desktop/laptop browser. I mean, the whole point of having a web version is to act as a substitute when you cannot access the service on your phone (e.g when battery is dead/ in a place where phone usage might be seen as rude, such as meeting), WhatsApp’s implementation beats this whole purpose.
So if anyone from WhatsApp is reading this, please do us this favor and bring these two features to your chat app. After all, getting “inspiration” (Snapchat) from other apps is not a new concept to Facebook and Co.
The creative industry is one of the biggest industries Nigeria. From the musicians, to the actors, and others engaging in various forms of art, the industry is home to millions of talents. Even with this, there are still a lot of creative people waiting to break into the industry to begin a career, but are finding it really difficult.
Job seekers who want to get roles into the industry have no platform to see available opportunities, as most of the time, these opportunities are not made available on regular job boards.
This reason is why Ifesinachi Okoli-Okpagu launched auditions.ng in January 2017. The platform is a job listing site that makes it easy for aspiring entertainment people to find jobs by connecting job seekers to opportunities in the entertainment and creative communities.
According to the founder, “Nigeria battles with youth unemployment, yet the creative industry has been identified as one with the potential to employ thousands of youths. Unfortunately, the industry suffers from a lack of structure. Auditions.ng seeks to bridge that gap. We are empowering creative people to turn their passion to a profitable career, thereby supercharging the Nigerian creative economy.”
The platform also help agencies and casting directors manage their casting calls in Nigeria, to help them find the right talents for their projects. Job seekers can get found by signing up on the platform and creating a profile, and recruiters can post job opportunities as well.
This is the first of its kind for the creative industry in Nigeria. It’ll no doubt help to discover more talents who have remained unknown due to lack of opportunities.
A lot of business people are still in the practice of using traditional methods to manage their businesses, and track sales. Most times, this is never easy, especially for those who manage multiple stores or makes tons of sales daily.
This challenge is what Taja is addressing. The platform is a tablet based retail Point-Of-Sale system that allow retailers monitor their business using a smartphone.
Launched in June 2014 by Adedoyin Olabode, Tajá helps Nigerian businesses overcome the challenges of manual product updates and monitoring of inventory. Through a smooth cloud-based retail platform that runs on tablets, the platform makes it easier for businesses to track inventory and handle sales.
According to the founder, “60% of people own multiple stores, they have families to manage, and many times the employees are not capable of managing it. The owners are also not able to monitor staff members and what’s going on in all the stores at the same time. With Taja device, owners sees their shop from cloud.”
How it works? Users download the app on a tablet, upload their inventory file and start selling. Taja charges US$50 per month per outlet, and targets businesses ranging from small retailers to larger companies with multiple outlets.
The platform works on any Android mobile device or Android PC, and business data is sent to the cloud to ensure easy monitoring for users. It also works offline, enabling users to use it even without an internet connection.
What’s more interesting about Taja? Users with more than one device can work still work perfectly when one device is unavailable, as Taja keeps your data synchronised across multiple devices.
If you run a retail business, and struggling with managing inventories, you should give Taja a try.
BBOXX, one of the UK’s fastest growing renewable-energy businesses, met with H.E. President Faure Gnassingbé, President of the Republic of Togo to discuss the “CIZO” (“light up” in Guin local language) presidential initiative.
BBOXX will implement 300,000 BBOXX solar home systems in Togo over the next five years under Togolese government’s Vision 2030, which will provide the entire Togolese population with access to electricity via a sustainable energy mix. The current population of Togo stands at 7 million people, of which 700,000 households are living without access to the grid, although 66% of the population has access to a mobile phone.
According to Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mansoor Hamayun: “The President has a strong vision to provide access to electricity to 2 million Togolese people. The governmental authorities have created the right framework to facilitate and attract private capital to electrify Togolese rural households. BBOXX is proud to have been selected by the Government of Togo and we will work hard to deploy our systems across the country.”
The new, innovative partnership between BBOXX and the Government of Togo will seek to roll out the first 10,000 BBOXX systems across Togolese rural areas over the next 12 months. The BBOXX Home – which has successfully been deployed in Kenya, Rwanda, Pakistan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola and South Africa – enables the consumer to charge up to five lights, television, radio and torches on a 12V battery. The system’s remote monitoring capabilities allow the operator to view the status of the customer’s product – particularly the battery life and what the customer is using the energy for.
The BBOXX Home permits customers to pay for their energy usage via a mobile-money platform. In turn, BBOXX provides the customer with a full energy service, replacing or upgrading the battery, solar panel and much more.
The presidency press release stated that “in addition to increasing the rural electrification rate from 7% to 40%, the CIZO initiative aims at providing massive adoption of mobile payment solutions across rural areas thus facilitating financial inclusion of rural populations”.
Entry to the Togolese market marks the third West African nation after Nigeria and Cameroon in which BBOXX has successfully launched its solar home system.
We are only a few weeks to the elections and government bodies and others from the private sector are working to make sure peace is maintained. During an election preparedness meeting today, the National Cohesion and Intergration Commission(NCIC) together with the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) announced that they will be tough on WhatsApp group admins that let their users spread hate speech.
The law on social media platform administrators
In fact, Mr Wangusi of CAK said that, 21 groups have already been identified to be guilty and that their administrators have been ordered to take action before the law deals with them. He also said that CAK’s monitors have been deployed to sort through social media, communication gadgets, and even the news media to sieve out hate speech and deal with those found guilty.
Ole Kaparu also emphasized Mr Wangusi’s message, however, the Twitter community had its own views. The #WhatsAppAdmins had been trending for the better part of the day after the announcement. Most people were tweeting that political leaders are the biggest spreaders of hate speech yet no action is being taken on them. Other people were feeling that their right of speech was being denied. Of course, in typical Kenyan fashion, memes and funny texts were posted as well.
More questions were raised than answers provided, some asked what would happen to the groups that have all their members as admins? Also, if a politically incorrect text is posted when the admin is offline and he or she is not notified, will the government still proceed with persecution? These are just a few of those questions Kenyans posed on Twitter, feel free to search the hashtag for more.
Similar law in India
It remains unclear how the government will monitor WhatsApp texts since they are encrypted. Perhaps they will borrow a leaf from the Indian government where a similar law exists. Ultimately, we hope that peace prevails through-out the weeks leading to election and beyond.
Have you ever received a youtube link in your WhatsApp conversations? Clicking the link takes you to the YouTube app / website. Well in this day and age, most applications such as Flipboard and even G-reader play YouTube videos within their interface. WhatsApp has been playing a catch up game and we are glad it is finally sorting up YouTube links.
In an upcoming update, video links will play inside the WhatsApp conversation. The update will take advantage of the picture-in-picture feature of iOS platform; this means that a small window will float on top of the conversation interface. A pinch to zoom gesture will resize the window, but you can still watch the video in full screen if you so desire.
You will be able to continue chatting with your buddy as the video plays however, leaving the conversation which has the link and entering another one will automatically stop the video streaming; it’s the same way WhatsApp handles audio playback.
At the moment, testing for this YouTube addition is only happening for the iOS version of the chat app starting with iPhone 6 going forward. No report has been released to confirm the same about other platforms. You need not to worry though, the company often evens out all platforms with similar features before a public release. Also, Android has been handling floating video windows long before the developers at Apple even thought about it, heck the YouTube app is already utilizing the feature on all its official apps, not to mention Samsung video players since the days of the Galaxy S3.
This information comes right after the company made live an update that will let users send any type of file. Head to the Google PlayStore or the Apple AppStore and grab the update it while it’s still hot. It seems WhatsApp is dedicated to remove all previous restrictions it had on media and file transfers, and we couldn’t be happier.
You know how challenging it can be to cope with a busy schedule. There are meetings, preparing documents, paying attention to social media when the need arises, following up and sending emails. This is why many busy professionals have resorted to hiring personal assistants, popularly known as PAs, and in turn making the term popular.
Founded in January 2016 by Ibukun Akinnawo, iPA provides professional administrative, technical, and creative assistance to clients through its team of dedicated virtual assistants. According to the iPA team, “think of us as your very own Personal Assistant to handle time consuming tasks”.
From helping you to carry out tasks such as research, website maintenance, graphics designing, copywriting, to scheduling meetings, reminding you of important calls and even paying bills, iPA aims to provide assistants on demand, and assist busy executives looking to offload some of their work.
According to the CEO, “executives pay for specific tasks to be completed in a set number of hours, and using iPA means that they don’t have to worry about overhead costs such as insurance, bonuses, vacation pay and training. Additionally, the clients don’t pay for the software, hardware and internet connection needed for the virtual assistants to get their work done.”
On why iPA is offering virtual rather than physical assistants, Ibukun states, “it’s more expensive to hire a competent physical assistant than a competent virtual assistant at iPA. Virtual assistants are a lot cheaper in the long run.”
For its service, iPA fee charges monthly a fee, which comes in different packages that can selected based on the needs of a client. To get started, all a user needs is to sign up and reach out to the iPA team.
In Nigeria, the concept of hiring virtual assistants is gradually gaining grounds, and iPA has the potential of making it come to stay.
Many know Huawei from their mobile phones; they are actually the third largest phone manufacturers in the world. What many don’t know is that Huawei is the leading global information and communications technology solution provider. Today, the company joined hands with the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization.
The partnership will greatly help Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization in deploying knowledge to member countries as well as contributing to global policy efforts in areas such as universal access, infrastructure and cybersecurity.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome Huawei Technologies as one of our members. Members of the CTO greatly benefit from knowledge and experience sharing. Huawei’s membership will help strengthen our organisation and its contribution to the use of ICTs for development across the Commonwealth,” said Shola Taylor, the CTO’s secretary-general.
The announcement was followed by the promise of Huawei to help drive the social economic growth in Africa by offering solutions to solve the digital divide of urban and rural areas. Speaking at the GSMA Mobile 360 Conference at Dar es Salaam, the company identified that the main challenges facing the industry is expanding the networks due to difficulties in site acquisition, high infrastructure cost and long return on Investment.
Huawei’s plans to solve this problem using Three-Star Site solutions, they include PoleStar, TubeStar, and RuralStar. These implementations will enable more sites in fast and affordable manner. Moreover, the company is committed to creating value for communities by deploying wireless broadband to the homes, maximizing network assets and narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural areas.
Dr. Mohamed Madkour, Huawei’s Vice President of Wireless Networks Marketing & Head of Global Demand Generation, said: “Beside optimum network solution for different deployment scenarios in Africa, we identified three business and industry alliances. Number one, content aggregation, for example, video cloud, game cloud and music cloud. Number two, site ecosystem alliance. Number three, fiber to the home alliance.”
Louis Vuitton is a globally recognized luxury fashion house that has made a name for its high quality garments and iconic black and brown print. The company decided to follow the footsteps of Tag Heuer and release an android smartwatch that fulfills the rich tastes of wealthy clients.
Meet the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon, an ultra luxury watch that runs on the latest Android Wear 2.0 OS. Given the reputation of the company, the watch comes with a price to match, a whopping $2,490 (KSh 249,000) for the stainless steel version. If you want it in black, the paint job will have you shell out $2,900 (KSh 290,000). For comparison, other smartwatches from big manufacturers like LG, that run the very same Android 2.0 OS cost an average of $199 (KSh 19,900).
For such an astronomical amount, you get sapphire glass on the back and front of the gadget. This is the one of the hardest materials- apart from diamond- to be used on screens. Sapphire is more expensive than hardened glass so most manufacturers only use it on camera lenses to avoid scratches. Back to the watch, it’s equipped with a 1.2inch round AMOLED touch screen which has a resolution of 390*390. A Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset does the heavy lifting with the help of 512MB RAM, 4GB storage and a 300mAh battery that is good for 22 hours of use.
The watch is water and dust resistant. It comes with a case whose diameter is 42mm and 12.5mm thick. It’s almost a rip off that such an expensive gadget comes with a frame made of stainless steel instead of a rare metal. The straps are made of pure leather and are interchangeable with a choice of 60 different variants. Still on customization, the Android Wear OS can let you change interfaces to match your straps if you so feel inclined. Luckily, Louis Vuitton didn’t bug down the software experience with many unnecessary apps, only two of them come from the company; My flight app which tracks your air travel info and updates in a central place, and finally City Guide app which suggests you places of interest in new cities.
In case you want the watch, it is already available on the Louis Vuitton website for purchase. In the box you get a battery charger with a leather tag bearing the LV logo (because why not!). It will work with any Android 4.3+ device as well as Apple iOS 9+ device.
Infinix followed up on their very popular and big battery phone series with a successor that doubles down on a new fresh design and stylus input on the Pro version. Meet the new Infinix Note 4 and the 4 Pro.
Infinix Note 4 Pro with X PEN stylus
Infinix Note 4
Model
Infinix Note 4
Infinix Note 4 Pro
Display
5.7 inch
IPS
Full HD resolution
424 pixels per inch
2.5D screen slight curvature
5.7 inch
IPS
Full HD resolution
424 pixels per inch
2.5D screen slight curvature
Internet
3G, 4G
3G, 4G
Camera
Rear 13MP Dual LED flash
Front 8MP
Rear 13MP Dual LED flash
Front 8MP
OS
Android 7.0 Marshmallow + XOS 2.2
Android 7.0 Marshmallow + XOS 2.2
CPU
Octa core,
Mediatek MT 6753
Octa core,
Mediatek MT 6753
GPU
Mali-720 MP3, 450Mhz
Mali-720 MP3, 450Mhz
RAM
2GB RAM
3GB RAM
Storage
16GB (Expandable up to 128GB)
32GB (Expandable up to 128GB)
Battery
4300mAh
4500mAh
Body
159*78.8*8.4mm
Full metallic body
198g weight
159*78.8*8.4mm
Full metallic body
198g weight
Colours
Champagne Gold, Milan Black, and Ice Blue
Champagne Gold, Sandstone Black, Lillac Grey, Prussian Blue
Huawei introduced a more affordable variant into its P series line up. The new P10 Lite targets those that might want the premium features of the flagship series but at a reduced price. The phone promises fast charge of 100minutes to top up the 3,000mAh battery which then takes up to 2 days before running out.
Model
Huawei P10 Lite
Display
5.2 inch
IPS
Full HD resolution
424 pixels per inch
2.5D screen slight curvature
Internet
3G, 4G
Camera
Rear 12MP LED flash f/2.2
Front 8MP f/2.0
OS
Android 7.0 Marshmallow + EMUI 5.0
CPU
Octa core,
Kirin 658
GPU
Mali-T830MP2
RAM
4GB RAM
Storage
64 (Expandable up to 128GB)
Battery
3000mAh
Body
146.5 x 72 x 7.2 mm Full metallic body
146g weight
Colours
Pearl White, Graphite Black, Platinum Gold, Sapphire Blue
Since 2013, Sote ICT has been operating in Taita Taveta county where 12 schools have been part of the program. During those four years, the program has benefited 6,000 members from 12 ICT clubs that are supported by 28 training firms. The program has received international support from Slovak Center for Training Firms and Slovak Aid both from Slovakia as well as Pontis Foundation and Practice Enterprises Network (PEN). The county government of Taita Taveta led by Governor John Mruttu has also played a huge supporting role to this noble program.
The voluntary training teaches students fundamentals of running a business. The trainees are rotated through all the different aspects of modern firms such as marketing, finances, human resource and also management. They learn how to make partnerships, business plans, accounting documents; create brochures, video adverts, blogs and even business cards.
Trade Fair
Governor Mruttu, Taita Taveta, inspecting a business booth at the Sote ICT Trade Fair
As part of the program, students get to compete in a trade fair where they showcase their business ideas to support partners, the county government, potential investors and the media. This year’s Sote ICT Trade Fair was held at Coast Institute of Technology in Voi Town. We had the pleasure of attending the event and witness the 26 business ideas presented by high school students from the area. The ideas ranged from tour guide companies, banking , insurance, environmental conservation companies, solar water heaters, photo and video production companies as well as studying platforms. Sote ICT goes as far as getting actual companies to partner with their students to offer mentorship and direction as they nature their business projects. Some of the well known partners include KCB Bank and Madison Insurance. Local firms also offer partnership; some of them are Sofi’s World and Rogim Designs (alumni of Sote Hub).
It was amazing to see very young students with really innovative ideas backed with proper documents such as invoices, well detailed and colorful brochures, samples of their work professionally displayed on their booth, vibrant and passionate CEO’s explaining the ideas and not to forget the very convincing marketers that would steal you from one exhibition room to the other in order to show you their stall.
Jakub Simek and Ivana Ulicna from Pontis Foundation award one of the schools’ teachers
Prizes were won for different categories including best stall presentation, best documentation, best representative and finally the best business idea. The 10 best ideas are then filtered and enrolled into Sote Hub. The top three ideas were:
Chop Smart EDTech app from Mwaghogho High School – its an app that helps students study better and more efficiently.
Green Mazingira Merchants from Mwaghogho High School – their idea is to turn plastic waste into beautiful office décor
Mutheu Enterprise from Murray Girls High School
As a bonus, teachers that did exemplary work to help the students get their projects ready for the trade fair were also rewarded.
Sote Hub
Sote Hub is the next step for students whose ideas stand out. 20 ideas are currently incubating in the Hub, 8 of them are already post seed. The Hub has partnered with other notable incubation centers such as Swahili Box and iHub. I was assured that the hub is not only reserved to Sote ICT students, it is also open to other people who have ideas, startups or simply those who want to keep abreast with technology. Slovak Aid is the main donor and has provided financial support for this project since inception.a
The future
With such a beneficial program, the goal is to reach as many young people as possible. According to the UN, 77.9% of workers in Kenya in 2014 were employed in the informal sector, there is therefore a dire need to train the youth on how they can be business owners based on their talents and other informal attributes. Therefore, Sote ICT program is needed now more than ever by students everywhere.
David Ogiga, Director of Sote Hub “We started out in Voi since we wanted to bridge the gap of poor academic performance of the area with practical IT and business skills, we are now looking into expanding to Kwale and other counties in the future” . David also expressed his desire to partner with the Cabinet Secretary of Education to roll out the Sote ICT program into more institutions as part of the initiative of the government to equip high schools with computer labs. “ With computers satisfying the need for hardware in the school labs, our program would complement the students with the content and curriculum to be taught in those labs.”
Fuelvoucher is trying to disrupt the regular way we buy fuel in the Nigeria. The platform has created a solution that allows drivers to pay for fuel with digital vouchers, providing oversight to how drivers spend fuel cash, and taking away the need for owners to handle large amounts of cash.
According to the CEO, Chimezie Emewulu, “we built FuelVoucher.com.ng to be an efficient means of purchasing fuel on the go without having to deal with cash , cards or paper vouchers.”
How it works? Users begin by signing in via the FuelVoucher website with a number and email address or downloading the mobile app from the Google play store.
The application then gives users access to a fuel wallet that can be toped up via a debit card or bank transfer.
Whenever the need to purchase fuel arises, all a user needs to do is to input the voucher amount and indicate the beneficiary required that is, who he/she wants to purchase for.
An alpha numeric code is then be sent to the beneficiary as a text message and email which can then be taken to any fuel station registered with FuelVoucher and presented to the attendant, who confirms the code on the FuelVoucher and dispenses fuel.
For car owners who are not able to access the internet when they need to purchase fuel, FuelVoucher has a feature – FuelDirect, which allows them to use its serviceoffline. With FuelDirect, people are able to purchase fuel at the station by inputting a four digit pin into the FuelVoucher device at the station without pre-generating a code on the site.
The pin provided is tied to customers’ fuel wallet, and whenever they need to fuel their vehicles, they simply punch in their pin, phone number and voucher amount he wants to purchase on the FuelVoucher device.
Another interesting feature the platform provides user is the ability to view their purchase history. Every transaction that occurs via the site is recorded per time and can be retrieved whenever customers need the information.
In order words, from the system you can view the history of all fuel purchases which includes information of who, when and where voucher codes were used, as well as the amount purchased.
FuelVoucher helps corporate organisations to efficiently manage fuel purchases, as it provides provides detailed online reports for monitoring, budgeting and reconciliation. For individuals, they can send fuel vouchers as gifts to friends, loved ones, drivers without being in close proximity to them.
FuelVoucher is also in a parrtnership with Interswitch, which has further helped the expansion of its fuel voucher-redeeming channels nationwide.
Want to avoid getting stranded due to an empty fuel tank and empty wallet? You should try FuelVoucher.
For tourists planning to come to Nigeria, one challenge they face is deciding the best location where they can spend a weekend, a week or a day. With TourArch, it’s become an easier process.
Launched on the 1st of March 2017, TourArch is a platform that lists choice locations, and allows tourists find perfect tour locations around Nigeria.
According to the team, it doesn’t end at just listing these places for you to pick one. “We’ve been to these awesome places and put up descriptions based on our experience while in these locations. That way, we give you a mental picture of what it’s like there and offer you the best preparation for a trip”.
They also help to hook you up tourists with “a number of cool tour operators” who can serve as guides around any locations of the country they’ve chosen. The platform currently lists about eight tour operators and ten tour locations.
The idea for TourArch was conceived in late 2015, in a corner of eastern Nigeria by a handful of entrepreneurs (Ezeibekwe Ogechukwu Kingsley Founder/CEO, Afolayan Adeleke, Co-Founder/COO, Ejekam Chioma, Head of Media) who are looking to raise the profile of tourism in Nigeria.
The team is working to expand TourArch beyond the borders of West Africa, to the African continent and around the world in due time.
There doesn’t seems to be an online platform offering this service in Nigeria, and TourArch is currently enjoying the monopoly.
Despite this, the CEO recognises that it doesn’t equal zero competition. According to him, “We don’t really have direct competitors. There is no platform which currently offers the services we do.” He however sees tour operators as their indirect competitors, adding that a possible collaboration with these supposed competitors may just pave way for the platform to own the market completely.
Following failure of negotiations with lenders regarding a $1.2 billion loan, Abu Dhabi owned telecommunications networks, Etisalat has terminated its management agreement with its Nigerian arm and has given Etisalat Nigeria three weeks to phase out the brand in the country.
Chief executive of Etisalat International, Hatem Dowidar said on Monday that there was no need for the brand in Nigeria after the collapse of the loan talks.
Etisalat Nigeria took-out a $1.2 billion loan with 13 local lenders in 2013 to refinance an existing loan and fund expansion, but struggled to repay four years later.
The Nigerian Communications Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria recently intervened to save Etisalat Nigeria from collapse after it failed to pay the remaining $589m from the $1.2bn loan, but all talks with lender was unsuccessful.
Etisalat, with a 45 per cent stake in the Nigerian business, had been ordered to transfer its shares to a loan trustee after it became obvious that it could not pay up the $589m debt of the original loan.
However, with the current development, Dowidar said in an interview with Reuters, “all UAE shareholders of Etisalat Nigeria, including state-owned investment fund Mubadala, had exited the company and left the board and management.”
He said it was tough to say what the lenders would do.
The Etisalat CEO added, “The brand agreement in either of these two scenarios won’t be a long-term thing, so we take out the brand; in the long term, Etisalat won’t be in Nigeria.”
He had earlier told Reuters that discussions were ongoing with Etisalat Nigeria to provide technical support.
“There’s a new board and we are not part of that company. We have sent our termination letter for the management agreement,” Dowidar said of the ongoing discussions with Etisalat Nigeria.
According to him, the parent company (Etisalat) has written down the value of the Nigerian business on its books and that transferring its 45 per cent stake to the lenders after loan renegotiation talks collapsed has no impact on the group.
When asked whether Etisalat would consider entering Nigeria again, he said, “The train has left the station on that one. Being in that market as an investor…are we willing to risk more money compared to the reward for the long-term?”
Etisalat Group entered the Nigerian market in 2008 through Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Ltd (EMTS), following the procurement of a 15-year Universal Access Service License (UASL) in 2007.
At the time, Nigeria was widely regarded as one of the most strategically important telecom growth markets in Africa with the largest population in the region, yet a low mobile penetration of just 20 per cent, he said.
The company reported positive earnings (EBITDA — Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) in less than four years of operations and has since become the fastest growing telecommunications network in the country.
Old and forgotten Internet archives from Mashada, a web forum run by David Kobia, an Ushahidi co-founder and board member show what could have been a bitter exchange between an unamed Kenyan female blogger and the accused executive accusing him of indecent advances.
The lady insisted that she didn’t want the then top blogger to contact her anymore as his choice of discussion topics was not favourable not to mention indecent. It’s said that the executive couldn’t stop talking about sex, and pestered her about what she was wearing, what she went to bed in, and all those other questions that people who love to talk about sex come up with on the phone.
However, in a series of blog posts, the accused denied the allegations and was equally shocked at them because he had never met the person.
“In fact when I read the allegations I was shocked like many of you were. I wanted to get to the bottom of it. I was one of the first people to leave a comment on the blog and I attempted to contact the blogger to find out what was going on. It was only later on the following afternoon that they informed me that the allegation was being made at me. It is hard to describe what I felt at that time. It was a mixture of disbelief and shock which was slowly turning to anger.
The very idea that someone who I have never met, who I do not interact with as much as I do with other bloggers, a blogger whose name I do not even know, could come out and say this almost knocked me off my feet.
Without taking any sides, the board would have moved fast to listen to both parties, and using the 2006 allegations and the said audio recording verify the authenticity of the claims to issue a suitable disciplinary action. It’s both criminal and inhuman for the lady to lie about the senior executive.
However, there are claims that the women who came forward were threatened and warned against ruining the local tech ecosystem and the accusations, if public, would probably lead to the loss of over 80 jobs and make it harder for some local firms to fundraise. There are also reports that the board barred other women from coming forward because they are still employees of the firm and had not filed formal complaints earlier. People close to the matter claim the firm has no proper HR department where such matters can be reported to. These are just reports but TechMoran will publish the list of distressed women in due time.
However, Ushahidi board is scheduled to issue a statement about these and what it’s been doing to help address these claims which first came to light in 2015.
With everyone going digital it’s become a common trend for brands to carry out promotions using the services of individuals and online publishers who have taken advantage of the digital age by growing their online to create a source of income.
Rather than going through the stress of serching for the right platform for promotions, Plaqad was launched to connect these brands to the right digital media influencers.
The platform is a social network connecting brands and individuals to bloggers, news websites, publishers and social influencers (micro-bloggers).
Plaqad is designed for individuals and organisations that want to get word out about their products, services and ideas, and for publishers or platform owners who want to earn revenue. It allows users organize or participate in content trading and publicity placement on listed blogs, websites, and social media services around the world.
According to the team, “Brands (large corporates, SMEs and individuals) want to get the best out of what’s happening online. And they deserve to. Publishers want to make enough money to keep their platforms running. They also want great content that’ll keep their audience hooked.
Plaqad is connecting both parties in a way that’s never been done before, by building a partnership that ensures audiences get great, amazing content anywhere they turn, brands and individuals put out their content when and where they want, while getting remarkable results from great storytelling.
Also, bloggers and publishers cut down on how much sales, marketing and non-editorial work they have to do, while earning more money than ever before”.
How It Works?
Using the Plaqad website, users upload their Plaqs – briefs and content, including news stories, interviews, live blogging, brand releases, blog posts, features, videos, photos, memes, listicles and op-eds. Plaqs from users are collated and distributed to publishers and influencers who get notified real time, with the ability to accept and process such requests.
PR agencies, media buying agencies, digital agencies, advertising agencies, freelancers, SMEs, individuals and professionals who want to display content on websites and blogs are qualified to use Plaqad after a one-step registration process.
For publishing platforms who want to sign up to receive plaqs, they are screened based on the Plaqad Global Standards Test, a set of conditions and minimum requirements that must be satisfied before getting listed. Once they successfully scale the screening stage, they are eligible to join plaqad, receive plaqs from brands and earn extra money.
This Plaqad is one innovative idea, which definitely has a potential of transforming the advertising space in Nigeria, and giving more people the opportunity to do more with their social media profiles.
For a company helping other people and organizations report incidents of violence, harassment and crime, it could be so ironical that Ushahidi is mum about internal cases of alleged sexual harassment by its senior executive instead of asking him to step down to allow investigations into the matter.
Not that Ushahidi was supposed to report to the public about these cases but as one of the continent’s exemplary firms it was expected to listen, address the issues as reported by its staff and ensure justice is upheld.
The major problem, according to the reports, is that a victim reported to one of the respected board members of Ushahidi. The board member allegedly referred the victim to report back to the said predator causing the victim to resign. These has led speculators to think that the predator could be under protection of the board because he’s been this wayward for years now.
According to reports reaching TechMoran, even after the victim notified the board members, nothing was done. It’s reported that a majority of the female victims were told to keep their mouth shut or else they would never raise funding for their startups or they would end up ruining the startup ecosystem made popular by Ushahidi itself, iHub and M-PESA. According to the report, Nairobi female founders are not safe either as they are allegedly asked to be nice to raise funding or remain in poverty. Most of them oblige as these angel investors have networks for follow-on funding and bigger networks in the corporate world or to government executives important for partnerships, expansion and regulation.
The Kenyan case comes just days after Silicon Valley went up in flames on cases of sexual harassment at Uber, 500 Startups, Binary Capital among others.
Ushahidi describes itself as an organization helping people raise their voice and get proper response but it has failed its own if the allegations are anything to go by. Ushahidi translates to “testimony” in Swahili and was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2008. Since then, thousands have use the software to raise their voice. Silencing its staff would be the last thing the Nairobi headquartered firm would do.
Ushahidi which started as a social enterprise operated on the goodwill of donor agencies and impact investors until it launched an enterprise version for use by corporate firms globally and is least expected to go against its mantra of improving the bottom up flow of information. It’s unbelievable that a firm that believes in helping marginalized people easily communicate would block internal communications or just fail to believe or address them.
TechMoran has reached out to the accused (executive director at Ushahidi) for more details.
If you’re an Agriculture enthusiasts, professional or own an agro-business, and you’ve been seeking an opportunity to be interact with a team of like-minds, Agricbase.com, a hub for agribusiness and the go place for Agric enthusiast. has been launched to give you that.
Founded by Shola Onoriemu in February 2017, Agricbase is a social media, business directory, knowledge repository for information related to agriculture and marketplace for Nigeria’s Agro-Professionals, Agro-business companies and individuals.
Through the platform professionals, service providers, can obtain and exchange ideas, information, products, and services related to agriculture. It also connects buyers within and across Nigeria to suppliers of various agric products, including – machinery and equipment, farm inputs, farm products, fish products, horticulture, processed food/bevearage products and many more.
The Agricbase platform includes individual/corporate professional profile page (micro website), products, discussions pages, guides from professionals, news, market analysis, weather forecast, and TV. Through these, they aim to create a platform like a virtual computer village, where Nigerians can get any information on agriculture or contact seller for agriculture input products and services.
Agricbase is one of the few startups offering the agriculture industry innovative solution, as the industry has only recently began to receive attention in the tech space. Agricbase’ service if done right has a potential of increasing the interest in agriculture in Nigeria, which is not common among the country’s youths. This will turn aid the growth of the industry.
When it comes to obtaining loans from banks in Nigeria, the process is never easy. But recently, obtaining loans has been easier than ever before, as a number of FinTech startups have sprung up to attend to this need, allowing Nigerians access funds whenever they need it.
eFinance is one of the few startups providing quick and easy loans to Nigerians. The platform is financial services provider offering short term loans between N100,000-N2,000,000 to customers with evidence of monthly income.
Users who want to obtain loans can have their funds within a short while by simply showing valid means of identification (Work ID & Government Issued ID), bank statement for the last 6months and letter of employment/last promotion.
Following application approval, users then confirm the amount and duration they are most comfortable with by using an online calculator available on the platform. The eFinance team then send a notification if your loan application is successful or not. If successful the requested loan is deposited into users’ account within 24 hours of the approval.
The eFinance team promises to give loans that are free of additional charges to monthly repayment if all payments are made once due on time, and claims to process loans quickly.
With the difficulty of accessing loans in Nigeria, eFinance, despite having a number of competitors, has a chance of winning the hearts of millions of Nigerians who are ready to do all it takes to access funds.
OPPO F3 is a new and trendy smartphone whose claim to glory is a Dual Selfie camera. The good people at OPPO gave us a chance to use the phone for an extended amount of time to truly experience and decide if it lives up to the name of Selfie Expert. After the first impression article, we continued using the device and we realized, the phone not only excels in selfies but also has many other strengths that combine – in overall – to make up a very compelling device.
Design and handling
OPPO generally makes phones with attractive designs across their entire portfolio, the F3 keeps this status quo. The metallic body is complemented by shiny chrome –like antenna lines which reflects light beautifully. The slim 7.3mm body feels great on the hands especially because the curved edges meets the slightly curved 2.5D glass so seamlessy in a manner that enhances ergonomics. Being so slim also makes it possible operate the 5.5 inch phone with one hand without struggling much. A handy one-handed UI mode is available in case you want more flexibility.
Display
The screen is of IPS technology, which means that the viewings angles are superb. It renders images in a true-to-life representation; the saturation levels are well balanced to enhance the colors a bit without losing their natural look. Unfortunately there is no settings to fine tune the display temperature, however, the screen does a decent job by default that you won’t find yourself with the need to adjust it. There is also a handy eye protection mode that filters out harmful light, OPPO conveniently put a quick toggle for this feature on the notification pull out for easy access.
Camera
Dual Selfie Camera
Dual Selfie camera
The dual selfie camera was the headlining feature of the phone, it does real justice to this Selfie Expert. The dual selfie comprises of 16MP + 8MP combo. The 16MP is for high resolution solo selfies while the 8MP is for super wide angle group selfies.
Solo selfie
The solo shots came out very sharp and with beautiful colors. The 16MP truly performs well especially in bright light environments. Dark areas didn’t produce the best photos mainly due to lack of a front facing flash.
Super wide angle selfie, almost 3/4 of the field is in the selfie
The group selfie is where the true magic lies, the camera gets so much into the picture. I took a picture at a sports stadium and behind me you could see ¾ of the field, it’s that incredible. With such a wide angle sensor, you will absolutely not need a selfie stick.
The picture quality here was amazing as well, more so in areas with lots of light. Colors were saturated and images were well detailed but, when there’s direct sunlight in the back-ground, selfies would tend to come out overexposed.
Bokeh effect, blur background, focused foreground
Bokeh effect is also supported thanks to this secondary camera, it blurs out the background and only puts your face and body into focus. Real time filters and a rare double exposure mode is also supported.
Rear camera
Blue skies, high dynamic range
The rear camera is 13MP in resolution. Yes, you read that right, the selfie camera has more resolution than the rear one, however, I found this shooter to be more mature in terms of picture quality. Photos taken with it are sharp, with great color rendering and most of all, the sensor was able to do better in low light scenarios than the dual selfies could. Even without using the flash, in door pictures turned out decent while compared to selfies. The flash was also bright enough to light up the subject in pitch darkness. There was high dynamic range in photos meaning that the sky remains blue and shadows are well exposed.
Low light shot
Manual mode is supported here, as well as an Ultra HD mode that lets you get photos of up to a whooping 24MP. Zooming is done digitally, but the images remained sharp even at 3-5 times. Other common modes such as HDR are present as well.
Software
No app drawer
OPPO F3 runs on a custom Color OS user interface that is build on top of android 6.0 marshmallow, the UI does not come with an app drawer which might be disappointing for some, but you can use folders to keep things organized. Luckily, there is a powerful search feature, you simply slide down your finger from anywhere on the home screen, type the name of what you want to search and the results are pulled from apps list, messaging, contacts, music, twitter and even Google search, it’s very comprehensive and fast. With this feature, I never spent time going through the home screen looking for a particular app, it makes up for the lack of an app drawer.
Color OS has some neat little touches such as the way the clock app icon changes into black at night and back to white during the day, or the way the notification bar informs of how much data is being used in real time when you have internet / WIFI-hotspot switched on.
Themes available
The interface is very smooth while operating the phone thanks to the generous amount of RAM. I did not experience any lags whatsoever. The multitasking panel is arranged in a horizontal list which I actually like since it lets you see full sized cards of your recently used apps. With a little creativity, you can use this panel as a form of dual-screen multitasking which the phone does not natively support.
There are some areas that the OPPO F3 needs improvements such as the way alerts on the notification bar cannot be expanded. Also, Color OS 3 does not play well with changing of default apps such as the launcher and messaging, it forces you to use the stock versions that came with the phone. In addition, I wish they could let you access all volume settings whenever you press the volume button, at the moment, the phone only lets you adjust the volume of the ongoing activities, that is, if you are playing music, you only get access to media volume, you cannot adjust incoming calls volume. Fortunately, these are all improvements that can be with a simple update so they aren’t deal breakers.
Performance
Dream League Soccer 17
Under the hood of the OPPO F3 is a Mediatek 6750T chipset, it is coupled with a 4GB RAM and a whopping 64GB internal storage which is expandable. The chipset handles its weight very fluidly; everything from social media to gaming was met with quick response. The phone plays games such Dream League Soccer 17 smoothly, even graphics intensive titles such as GTA San Andreas, Mortal Kombat X and NFS No Limits, all of them ran smoothly without overheating the phone.
Mortal Kombat X
The 4GB RAM makes multitasking a breeze, I actually stopped using the back button when exiting apps, I would simply press the home button and move on, and even then , the phone never lagged. The 64 GB gives you unrivaled freedom, not many manufacturers let you have this much space for the price of the F3, we applaud OPPO for that and hope that they keep being generous.
Multimedia
OPPO F3 comes with a powerful loud speaker, it is loud enough to make sure that you do not miss any phone calls and that all your friends hear the audio when you are showing them videos and vines. Speaking of videos, all common formats are supported by the native video player that comes with the phone, you won’t need to install a third party app.
The earphone audio is great too, it was actually very loud. Audiophiles would appreciate it especially if they utilize a high quality set of earphones. Bass is punchy and lows are clear, there is a built-in equalizer in case you want to fine tune the audio.
Battery
Despite the slender dimensions of the F3, the phone still managed to squeeze in a 3200mAh battery. Amazingly, the battery life is also great, it will easily take you through a whole day’s use without needing a recharge.
Speaking of, the charging speed is very fast. Sure the phone does not come with OPPO’s VOOC charging technology, but they have still implemented fast charging solution of sorts.
A low power mode exists in case you want to stretch out the longevity further. The feature cuts down background processes and reduced processor speed, but even at this limited settings, the phone is still very fast. I had this mode switched on almost every time, that way, I would use the device endlessly and not have to worry about battery dying on me at all.
Unfortunately, OPPO does not have an ultra power saver mode, we hope that they add it via an update. Lastly, the phone does not have display on screen battery times, again, an update can fix this as well.
Pros
Beautiful slim design
Unique dual selfie camera with high resolution solo shots and ultra wide group selfies
Great rear camera with manual mode and fast focus
Good picture quality from both cameras
All day battery life with fast charging speeds
Loud earphone and external speaker volume
4GB RAM makes multitasking a breeze
64 GB storage gives you total freedom with content, it is expandable as well
Little in conjunction with Craft Silicon Foundation recently launched a free Digital Literacy Program for Children of Little drivers. Here are the highlights of the program,
It is a four weekends exclusive crash program targeting children aged between 7 – 13 years.
The weekly batched sessions are planned for 4 hours, which intend to equip the Little Drivers’ children with relevant and practical ICT skills that will nurture technological competence as they grow up.
The Program dubbed “Smart Little Kids of Smart Little Drivers” will be conducted on Sundays at Craft Silicon Foundation ICT Centre.
The Digital Literacy program for little Kids will ensure that innovation is nurtured from an early stage, developing a generation for a smart future.
This is a loyalty program, for committed little drivers. The program is targeting over 1000 children of little drivers. Free Digital Literacy program is a flagship project under Craft Silicon Foundation – a corporate social responsibility initiative of Craft Silicon Limited.
The foundation uses solar powered mobile computer bus that ensures computer education reaches out to everyone at their door step in an environmental friendly and sustainable manner.“This is one of the value additions that Little is offering to its drivers and their families,” says Little and Craft silicon Foundation CEO Mrs. Priya Budhabbahatti. Although our focus is on improving Little customers’ experience, we also feel the need to empower our drivers both on economic and social grounds. And this is going to be the iota of the things to follow. We are already in discussions with various other organizations with similar beneficial programs to our drivers said Mrs. Priya.
This is a new benefit added to the kitties of the Little Drivers who are already enjoying various incentives from Little.
Little, Africa’s first mobile app for transportation, integrates city transportation for customers and driver partners onto a mobile technology platform.
Little also offer its services to the non-smartphone users in the country through its USSD solution – *826#. Using the mobile app, users across Kenya can conveniently book from thousands of our professional pool of drivers.
Like Shopify, Kenya’sSky.Garden is a SaaS product distribution platform with advanced E-commerce capabilities allowing SME’s to sell any product to defined local target audiences on digital channels with ease.
Founded this year by Christian Grubak and Martin Majlund from Denmark, their dream of starting an e-commerce firm to give SME’s access to the digital market saw Daniel Maison and Isaac Hunja join the team as a Managing Director and Marketing Director respectively.
The team says its was inspired by the fact that the state of e-commerce in Kenya caters exclusively to the top tiers of the economic pyramid, leaving little room for individuals and businesses that exist within the lower segments of the economy to reap the benefits offered by online transactions.
“Many of the business that you find running in markets such as Toi Market and Gikomba don’t have an e-commerce platform that they can use to expand their geographic reach,” said Grubak. “And many of the platforms they have access to are littered with fraudulent cases that makes it hard for them to present themselves and their products as legitimate.”
“Further, one major problem businesses face is distribution,” adds Grubak. “They may get a potential customer that wants a delivery made to them, however the cost and headache to make it happen have driven many business owners to only rely on walk-in customers. Some of these business owners don’t have physical stores as well, and spend lots of time and money dashing from location to location picking and dropping products. With Sky.Garden merchants have the benefit having their products delivered for them by our trusted delivery partners, at absolutely no cost to them!”
The team told TechMoran that they chose Kenya first because mobile penetration inches towards 80% and the shift from feature phones to low-end smartphones with 3G and 4G is rapidly increasing. Further, with M-Pesa and other mobile money solutions, little cultural adoption is needed.
For you to sell on Sky.Garden all you have to do is:
Register an account by naming your web shop and putting in all your personal details
Upload your products to your inventory directly on the app. Your products will automatically be placed on the Sky.Garden marketplace for customers to see (www.sky.garden)
Share your unique web shop links to your social networks like WhatsApp, Facebook & Twitter
Once you get an order you will be notified by a Sky.Garden customer service representative
Your product will then be picked up and delivered to the customer
Get paid directly to your M-Pesa.
E-commerce is not a facade in the country as Kenyans are transacting online a lot more, especially now more than ever. This is very evident with the number of businesses turning to e-commerce and social media to increase their sales.
Sky.Garden adds that previously, online shopping was exclusive to middle/upper class individuals who were looking for alternative products and bargain deals on tech products. It’s inclusive nature has shifted this dynamic by including more every day and diversified merchants on the platform- much like you would find along a typical commercial street in the CBD.
“As a result, we have witnessed a shift in the type of products being bought online; from Shower Heads, Breast pumps, duvet covers to shoe laces. This proves that customers view online shopping as a relevant and affordable source of their everyday items,” said Grubak.
Like Shopify, Sky.Garden gives sellers the power to manage their online inventory just as they would in their physical store. With the Sky.Garden app, sellers can upload as much inventory as they want, specify how many of each is in stock, adjust prices as they wish, change photos and even add product variations. Furthermore, Sky.Garden assures sellers that with every sale, their product will be picked up and delivered within 24hrs, and their payment will be sent directly to their M-Pesa immediately the customer accepts the delivery.
“Sky.Garden doesn’t want to compete with social media,” Hunja told TechMoran, “Instead we want Sky.Garden sellers to post their unique links on their existing social media pages to easily convert advertising to cash!”
For security, Sky.Garden says trust is the cornerstone of its platform. Every seller that comes onto the Sky.Garden platform is vetted by a team of Engagement Managers that go out and physically visit each of them and assess their viability on the platform. Secondly, it has a dedicated content team that sifts through the platform on a daily basis for any fraudulent products or behavior.
When a customer purchases a product on Sky.Garden, the money does not go to the merchant UNTIL the customer is happy with the product and signs it off. The payment sits in a Sky.Garden escrow account where it will be disbursed to the merchant upon approval from the customer. If the product is rejected, the money is sent back to the customer immediately and the product is returned to the seller at no cost to them.
Customers also get the opportunity to give a 1-5 star rating of their experience with every seller they transacting with and write a comment. The ratings and comments will be displayed on every web shop so that future customers can make an accurate assessment before every purchase.
At the moment, Sky.Garden only accepts M-Pesa payments. Customers pay via M-Pesa online before purchase or upon delivery, and sellers are paid via M-Pesa within 2hrs of delivery of their products, which makes us the quickest settlement platform in the country. The firm is currently working on Visa/Mastercard payments for its more established businesses as well as integrating additional mobile money payments offered by the other network operators in Kenya.
Merchants will have no entry costs or registration fees, there are also no monthly fees. Sky.Garden works on commission, and takes a service fee of 8% on every transaction. As sellers are uploading their products, there are 2 fields for price – ‘Your Prices’ & ‘Sales Price’. ‘Your Price’ is the amount of money you will get from the sale of an item. While ‘Sales Price’ is the amount the customer will pay for the item, which includes Sky.Garden’s 8% service fee. That way, sellers can very easily put in how much they want to make from the sale of an item minus Sky.Garden’s 8%.
“We realize that there is a great number of sellers that do not have access to smartphones and/or the internet. Creating a solution for this segment of the market is something we are definitely working towards,” Hunja told TechMoran.”Our primary focus is to own e-commerce in big cities in emerging markets. We also want to offer 6.1bn global smartphone users the opportunity to start their own business by 2020.”
The Samsung Galaxy J series started out as an entry-level phone series with the launch of J1. With time, the series has grown to become a more mature mid-range offering, it is now at almost at the same level with the Galaxy A line.
Today, Samsung launched Pro edition J5 (2017), it packs more RAM and storage on top of the decent package that was offered by the non pro version. This new device ups the RAM to 3GB and the storage to 32GB.
The rest of the specifications remain the same, which is to say that it has a 5.2 inch HD Display, is powered by Exynos 7870 SoC with octa-core 1.6GHz processor and Mali-T830MP2 GPU. It has a 13MP rear as well as front camera, runs on android 7.0 and a decent 3,000mAh battery. A fingerprint sensor is mounted below the display for added security.
For now, the Galaxy J5 Pro is available in Thailand but it is only a matter of time until it crosses over to Africa. The current asking price is $295, which is only $15 dollars more than the non-pro version. Judging by the minimal upgrades, it is evident that this pro version seems to be targeting customers who are looking to upgrade to the 2017 J series, it is not for the users who already own the regular Galaxy J5 (2017).
I have been a long time fan of Infinix, right from the days of the Hot One. I always preferred Infinix products over their rival/sister company Tecno. They are not only more affordable and value packed, but also seem to be more focused on details like camera quality, performance, battery life and more. However, I have been following the company’s smartphone launches and I have realized a worrying pattern.
Zero 2 was a work of art, had a colorful AMOLED display, special Kevlar back casing and a super slim 6.5mm thin body
Infinix phones seem to be getting better after every new release, but after a closer look, you will discover that they are actually degrading. Here’s an example, the Zero 2 was a masterpiece, it had an AMOLED display, a technology that was only reserved for high end flagships at the time. It also had rear casing that was made from Kevlar, a material so tough that it is used for bullet-proof vests. Finally it was 6.5mm thin, effectively making it slimmer than the 6.8mm Samsung Galaxy S6, the top flagship device that year. A friend of mine still uses the Infinix Zero 2 and it still turns heads up to date. With such a premise, I was expecting the successor to be mind blowing, but was it?
Zero 3 lost the AMOLED screen, Kevlar back and is much more bulkier than the prior Zero 2
Infinix Zero 3, launched the following year, was a nasty surprise. The first time I read about it online, I was hoping it was an early prototype. It lost the AMOLED in favor of a dull LCD, the Kevlar got replaced with a cheap plastic cover that was designed to fool the user into thinking that it was a glass casing, the phone also gained weight…a lot! The only major upgrade was the processor (Mediatek Helio X10), bigger battery and a 20.7MP camera. Not a bad phone, I particularly loved the photos taken by its camera but so much was sacrificed from the Zero 2 to keep the price at Ksh 18,000.
This year’s Infinix Zero 4 has a slower processor than last year’s Zero 3. Its a shame.
The Zero 4 wasn’t lucky either, it got an inferior chipset compared to the one in its predecessor (Mediatek 6753 vs 6795 Helio X10), this is unheard of for a flagship device. The Mediatek 6753 is a year older than the Helio X10 that was in the Zero 3. This was a huge deal breaker for power users. Sure there is a much more powerful Zero 4 Plus, but its price is almost double that of the Zero 3 and 4, it targets a whole new audience altogether.
Moving on, the Infinix Note series seems to be the only one that was not compromised, not until they launched the Note 4. You see, the Note 3 had the same processor (Mediatek 6753 ) that is running on the current Zero 4, add that to a bigger battery, decent photos and metallic build, I found myself wondering which among the two was the flagship. The current Zero 4’s only feature that beats the Note 3 (pro) is the camera, yet the latter is more expensive the former.
Covering old internals with new designs might not work for Infinix for long
Now to the Note 4, it has maintained the KSh 14,000 price tag, but what was sacrificed? The processor used is still unclear but some publications state that a the Mediatek 6753 is still running the show, it has been recycled from last year’s Note 3. To make matters worse, this is a chipset that was released back in 2015 yet it is currently being used all across all Infinix 2017 products, from the just released Note 4, Infinix S2 Pro, and Zero 4. It’s sad. Maybe the goal is to unify performance across the board, but, they are better chipsets out there with newer architectures that strike the right balance between performance, battery life and cost.
In conclusion, I hope Infinix gets a better way of making new iterations like other manufactures. Instead of degrading certain features, it would be best to leave them intact while only changing what is being upgraded. Covering up inferior technology with new designs and cameras might not work for them in the long-term. Tecno has figured out better upgrades, they are also utilizing newer chipsets over the aging Mediatek 6753, perhaps Infinix needs to borrow a leaf from their sister company before they are beaten at their home turf.
Back in the days of the Galaxy S4 and the S5, Samsung used to release mini versions of their flagships; in fact, HTC and Sony did the same too. Today, only Sony has a compact series still going, however, they are yet to release one for their latest flagship.
According to new rumors, Samsung is planning to launch a Galaxy S8 Mini, it is said to have a 5.3 inch display but will fit within the dimensions of a 4.7 inch device thanks to the infinity display. It seems that having a 5.8 inch screen as the smallest option on the regular Galaxy S8 was too much to handle for some customers. Samsung seems to have taken note and we applaud the decision of launching a mini Galaxy S8.
The Achilles’ heel of many mini flagship versions is having a lower powered specifications, it seems that this will still be the case with the S8 Mini, it will be running on last year’s Snapdragon 821. In all honesty, that chipset is still very capable; we hope that utilizing it will keep the overall price down. Sony on the other hand is being rumored to launch an Xperia XZ Compact packing the full might of the latest snapdragon 835, the very same one that is ticking on the flagship Galaxy S8. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the S8 Mini on the market.
Fortunately, the rumor goes further to suggest that the S8 Mini will keep the 4GB RAM, 32GB storage and the iris scanner intact, we hope that all other signature S8 & S8+ features will cross over too.
