Managers and entrepreneurs in Africa can now get free online courses thanks to the African Management Initiative (AMI).

The first series of the courses has been launched in partnership with AMI and top business schools, aimed at reaching 1 million African managers and entrepreneurs in the next decade.

The first course, Managing Customers and Markets, is available on AMI’s new online learning platform at http://www.africanmanagers.org. It was developed with Strathmore Business School in Kenya.

AMI, a social enterprise established in 2012 to tackle Africa’s management capacity gap, leverages technology to empower African managers and entrepreneurs through practical, accessible and locally relevant learning tools.

“Our goal is to help African managers and entrepreneurs develop new skills and build their businesses by providing access to world-class learning tools for free or very low-cost,” said Jonathan Cook, Chairman and Co-Founder of AMI. “Our courses are practical and proudly African.  Our platform is easy-to-use, and can be accessed anytime, anywhere, on a computer or mobile phone.”

AMI has partnered with Africa’s most prestigious business schools, including leading business schools; Strathmore Business School in Kenya, the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in South Africa and Lagos Business School in Nigeria. AMI has already trained over 1,000 managers in 25 countries.

The AMI course is free, and participants can upgrade to gain a personalized certificate on completion from AMI and its business schools for $25.The course takes approximately 30 hours of study, including a final exam and assignment. Around 3000 people from across Africa have already signed up.

AMI also provides training via offline Learning Lab workshops in partnership with organizations and businesses in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa and Ghana.

“AMI’s vision is for 1 million African managers performing effectively and responsibly by 2023. We will achieve this through accessible learning tools that embrace the digital space,” added Cook. “Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) have been used in the US and Europe to provide skills and knowledge.  We are now applying this in Africa.”

Airtel Nigeria wants a bumper harvest on subscribers, it is aiming for 30 million by the end of 2014, and to make this possible the telecommunication company will be throwing in $300 million to expand its network in the country.

Segun Ogunsanya, head of the Nigeria unit stated that: “We plan to spend about $300 million expanding Airtel’s network and services in the country this year. We have invested so much in marketing research to see what the customers want and we are delivering on those expectations.”

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), as of the end of March this year, Airtel Nigeria had 25.5 million subscribers. Nigeria being the biggest market outside India the telecommunications company is positive that is will reach its target after the network expansion.

“I’m very optimistic that there are no encumbrances against growth so I’m sure we’re going to reach the 30-million mark. Despite the environment and the issues we face, I think we’re still giving relatively good service to our customers,” said Ogunsanya.

Airtel is the second largest telecommunication company in Nigeria, after the south African MTN Group.

Safeguard Alarms has introduced a new outdoor wireless security system dubbed the Safeguard Sentry. It will give ‘early warning alert’ in case of intrusion or burglary attempt.

The system consists of two or more “sentry” units with passive infrared sensors that emit invisible beams in a 100 degrees arc and a hand-held control station. The sensors can detect movements up to 20 metres away. They can be adjusted to monitor shorter distances.

Each “sentry” has top and bottom sensors. Both sensors have to pick up motion within half-a-second of each other to trigger the alarm. This means that the alarm will be set off if the beams are crossed by a human being but not by a pet, bird or plant.

When motion has been detected by both sensors, the “sentries” communicate with the control station, which can be up to 500 metres away, to set the alarm off and simultaneously notify the property owner where an intrusion has been detected. The alarm is also set-off whenever a “sentry” unit is tampered with.

The basic system consists of two “sentries” and a control station unit. However, other “sentries” can be added to the unit to monitor different outdoor zones. The system can take up to eight “sentries,” monitoring four zones.

The control station unit is handheld and can be carried around the property easily. What’s more, the control station monitors the battery life in each “sentry” and indicates when a battery’s power is low. The unit can also be used as a panic button to sound the alarm.

The “sentries” are powered by batteries that last for at least a year. They can however last up to two years. They send a signal to the control station every 20 minutes to verify signal, battery and operational status.

“The system can be installed as a stand-alone system or be fully integrated with an existing alarm system on any property,” explained Safeguard Alarms managing director Reason Chitiva.

The system is simple and easy to install and use. It has no wires and does not require any user code for arming and disarming it. It is simply switched on or off by means of a switch on the wireless control station.

“It is weatherproof and ideal for monitoring areas where there is a swimming pool pump, electric gate motor or car park or for just monitoring areas around the outside of a house or other building.

“An outdoor system such as this ensures that the alarm is activated before an intruder enters a building rather than when he has already broken into premises,” Chitiva said.

It looks like cloud technology is the major interruption factor in the EMEA infrastructure hardware market, accounting for a growing portion of hardware spending and exerting influence on hardware architectures and vendors, says a new International Data Corporation (IDC).

The study represents the usage of infrastructure hardware elements in different types of cloud environments in EMEA, including on-premises private clouds, hosted private clouds, and hosted public clouds. It includes historical data for cloud hardware spending in 2011 – 2013 and forecast data for 2014 – 2018.

People will be investing in hardware for cloud environments in EMEA worth more than $4 billion by the end of this year, with a strong 19 percent annual growth. 15 percent of the infrastructure spend in EMEA will be related to cloud environments in 2014, against only 8 percent in 2011.  It is expected to increase to more than 22 percent in 2018.

“Along with Big Data, social, and mobility, cloud represents one of the four pillars of IDC’s 3rd Platform vision – the new paradigm of IT usage that is revolutionizing the way technology is adopted in commercial and consumer environments,” says Giorgio Nebuloni, research manager, IDC EMEA Enterprise Server Group.

“The rise of cloud has triggered a revolution in the hardware market. While white-box and few large OEMs fight to absorb the surge in demand for public cloud, most incumbent hardware players invest heavily in offerings enabling on-premises and hosted private cloud environments, such as integrated systems, high-end networks, and high-performance storage.”

“In the longer term, IDC expects greater adoption of hybrid cloud with benefits for both private and public consumption. Hybrid cloud allows customers to retain sensitive data behind a corporate firewall while still taking advantage of cloud-related lower costs,” says Mohammed Hefny, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA systems.

The study also says that the cloud  hardware penetration will vary mainly by country, and it is more advanced in Western Europe than in emerging EMEA markets. In northern Europe, hosted private and public cloud deployments have been accelerated over the past two years, driven by large multinational providers especially in business to consumer environments.

Energizer South Africa and Mxit took advantage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and ran a one week campaign; and this made the app grow from zero base to 33,789 followers.

The campaign was know as ‘Making the Game Last Longer’, the main idea was that Energizer is the longest lasting battery. The promotion was centred on a on-pack competition, where consumers could win one of 100 DSTV Exploras. The campaign was amplified on Mxit with splash screen advertising, sponsored content and an ‘upload your team’ photo competition that encouraged consumers to sign up for the app.

Mxit reports that the campaign delivered 749,688 impressions and over 27,500 clicks at a high click through rate of 3.68 percent.

Andrew Kramer, Mxit VP sales said: “The response to the campaign has been phenomenal. We received 780 competition entries via Mxit. The concept of uploading photos to qualify for a prize demonstrates just how interactive the user is and highlights that becoming a content creator is a marketing strategy that resonates with consumers.”

In partnership South Africa’s foremost for-good marketing agency, [dot]GOOD, Energizer sponsored content within Every1Mobile’s MAD4SOCCA Mxit app, encouraging consumers to download its app from each page of the MAD4SOCCA environment.

Michael Baretta?MD of [dot]GOOD said: “The sponsorship was a natural fit for us, as it brought the campaign to life in a relevant way. Mxit provides a unique platform to engage the mid to lower market and all the campaigns that have run to date have yielded high click through rates and consumer engagement.”

Android users already have had the ability to shop on JUMIA Kenya using the JUMIA mobile app for Android, and in yet another move to further enhance the customer shopping experience, the e-commerce company has moved to announce the free Jumia Kenya shopping app for Windows 8.

The app, currently available in five African countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and Ivory Coast) enables you to browse and shop for products from Electronics, fashion, home appliances, read reviews, compare prices and order items right from your smartphone or tablet at the best prices and have them delivered to your doorstep or office at your convenience.

The mobile app also allows users to rate products, write reviews and be updated on  the latest products, deals or offers by the swipe of the finger left or right and is absolutely free to download on the Windows app store.

Parinaz Firozi,MD for JUMIA Kenya, commented: “Thousands of Kenyans are buying online through the mobile applications.The search bar allows you to find whatever products you desire on www.jumia.co.ke, sort by brand, lowest price, highest price, most popular, new in, colour or best rating andplace your order. It’s easy and convenient from wherever you are.”

The E-commerce company, which celebrated its first anniversary in Kenya in May this year,was established to provide customers with a shopping experience that is safe, convenient and stress-free. With unbeatable prices and brand new products, the company delivers to your doorstep anywhere in Kenya and offers a free return policy of 7 days. Products can be purchased using a range of payment options including cash on delivery, mobile money transfer (MPESA) and credit card.