McKinsey’s iGDP measures the internet’s contribution to an economy as a percentage of GDP. In 2012, Africa’s iGDP was estimated to be more than US$18 billion (1.1% of Africa’s GDP) and estimated to increase by 1567% to US$300 billion (10% of Africa’s GDP) by 2025. This assumes that the internet’s impact will be at levels similar to mobile phones. A more cautious baseline projection has Africa’s iGDP rising to between 5% and 6% of Africa’s GDP, which is at par with today’s leading tech-driven economies such as Sweden (6.4%) and Taiwan (5.4%). Read more here…
The internet’s contribution to Africa’s GDP is projected to grow by over 1500% to $300B by 2025
1,000 times faster than normal internet speeds a new reality
Internet users are set to enjoy 1,000 times faster than normal broadband internet speeds with estimated broadband speed of 10 gigabits per second. This will be about 10 times faster than Google Fiber that currently offers the fastest speeds in the market.
This comes after Bell Lab researchers came up with a unique means of providing internet services to subscribers who use internet at home or workplace.
XG-FAST, Bell Labs parent company, plans to provide 10 gigabits per second over a distance of up to 30 meters, offering telcos a new way to ensure no customer is left behind when it comes to ultra-broadband access.
However, several factors could reduce internet speeds transmitted over copper lines. This is why 10 Gbps could not be a reality any time soon. Additionally, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has to approve the speeds in the market.
Samsung Apps Rebrand To ‘Samsung Galaxy Apps’
Users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones will now benefit from a revamped apps store called ‘Samsung Galaxy Apps’, which has more exclusive apps that allow for greater customization of mobile devices.
The store that is available to over 130 million users across 161 countries will also function as a platform offering diverse promotions and discounts.
“At Samsung, we continuously strive to create value for our customers by providing differentiated solutions and services coupled with innovative devices,” said WonPyo Hong, President of the Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics.
The Galaxy App store comes in three categories, Best Picks, Top, and For galaxy, all of which further subdivide into three other sections with Best Picks including; recommended apps and promotions, the Top section compromising popular apps and For Galaxy section including; Galaxy Gifts, Galaxy Essentials, Apps for professionals and business-focused apps.
“Samsung Galaxy Apps is an extension of that promise, as it offers our customers exclusive apps to enrich their experience,” said WonPyo.
Samsung Galaxy Apps is an improvement on its predecessor Samsung Apps. It will provide customers ease in access and enjoy select applications that bring with them an upgrade in service received by users worldwide.
Cameroon’s MuZik Brings Music Streaming to the Feature Phone
Founded in 2011, Cameroon’s Adelrick has combined AI and GSM technologies to create MuZik, a value-added service, which make mobile phone subscriber’s life more easier, by providing the right music or information , automatically grabbed on Internet, for feature mobile phone (without data plan) first, everywhere, anytime , in few seconds, just by texting your SMS query in English or French.
The Douala-based firm was founded by Patrick Mveng, a Cameroonian Software Engineer in Artificial Intelligence graduated from IAI-Gabon, worked in ENSEEIHT Laboratory , 12 years experience in VAS ( SMS , WAP , VoIP , FaxoIP , IVR ) and web ERP projects manager in Cameroon companies and is also an architect of VIKI , a Siri-like virtual assistant which mimics human intelligence.
Inspired by the need to make human being easier by providing AI-based applications, MuZik allows users to send an SMS inquiry such as “I want to listen a song in the last album of Mani Bella” and MuZik will play it on a users feature phone. If you SMS “Who are the finalists of Brazil 2014 World Cup ?” , MuZik will automatically grab from Internet “Germany vs Argentina” and SMS it to you.
MuZik makes money via prepaid pricing plans through premium rate number via its Discover platform which gives unlimitted free music with audio ads and the Premium one which gives unlimitted ads-free music for each monthly subscription.
“Music streaming quality with feature phone is a challenge Mveng says and also there is growing competition from international services such as Deezer , Spotity , YouTube and several others in Africa. MuZik’s unique point is it allows users to stream music minus access to Internet.
“With MuZik there is no need to Internet Connection; no app to install and it’s compatibility with feature phones. You have your music everywhere, anytime, Mveng told TechMoran. “We are honoured to be part of DEMO Africa 40. It will be a great opportunity to deliver to customers the result of more than 6 years R&D in AI and we shall continue to listen to human needs and continue to innovate in AI applications.”
Rwanda’s Jifunza Preserving African Culture through Technology
Jifunza, founded in February 2014 in Kigali by Derek Blair and Yves Niyonshuti wants to help preserve African culture using technology.
Jifunza‘s app called Menya (Knowledge in Kinyarwanda) aims to help users learn African languages, from wherever they are.
“A large customer segment for us is visitors to Africa who want to learn local languages. I was once a visitor myself and I was frustrated with the lack of digital resources available for learners such as myself,” Blair told TechMoran. “Back in Canada, I also noticed the lack of quality language learning content for African children in the diaspora who are interested in learning their parents language. Since there are so many languages in Africa to learn, we turned to crowd-sourcing and the idea for Menya was born.”
Blair, who is the CTO of Jifunza used to work for Microsoft Game Studios in Vancouver, Canada as well as other mobile gaming companies has a BSc in Industrial Mathematics from Simon Fraser University while his co-founder, Yves is an IT student and skilled developer based in Kigali Rwanda with a passion for entrepreneurship.
Now in beta testing, the app has received over 3000 inquiries via its landing page and will be launching to the public at DEMOAfrica.
Menya is a bit like YouTube but for language learning games instead of videos. So users can search for and play lessons on a given language but users can also submit and contribute their own lessons to the community. The process of submitting a lesson is very easy and requires the user to simply speak to their smartphone in the target language when prompted. It takes only 1 min but when combined magically with our game templates the results are fantastic. The creator is encouraged to share their creation with friends and family. Lessons can be created on iOS and Android with Windows Phone coming soon. The lessons can be played on the same devices but also on the web in any HTML5 enabled browser.
There are of course lots of apps out there for learning common African languages, some of which are made in Rwanda and designed specifically for learning Kinyarwanda, but Blair says they are not giving up.
“We focus on providing very high quality content even for the most obscure African languages. We can do this because the content is user generated and then combined with templates to create rich digital experiences. This is a unique property of Menya,” Blair told TechMoran.
Bootstrapped, Jifunza has been working with the linguistic challenges of designing effective language learning games which has been a ton of work and is confident that it will have something to impress at DEMO.
The two, who also run Iwe Labs based in Kigali and Lusaka says they are very honoured and humbled but also extremely excited and never imagined it would make it. Jifunza says its committed to the continuous improvement of Menya based on its users feedback and analytics data.
Online Shopping Mall Rmart Ghana Wants to be Ghana’s Amazon
Rmart.com.gh, an online shopping mall has been launched in Ghana to help Ghanians buy stuff online and have it delivered with ease.
Build to allow registration of multiple vendors (shops) and automation of all the essential features in online transactions from Inventory control, cart management, billing, payment processing and shipping rates calculations Rmart has been designed to accept payments online via Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Moneybookers, mPower payments, Airtel Money, MTN, Tigo Cash among others. The firm says it has also collaborated with Etranzact to introduce Rcards; a convenient way to make visa payments online to be customer ready for both Local and International users.
Joe Dzitse, a graduate from the University of Ghana Business School, and Co-Founder of Rmart Ghana Limited,
“Everything on our website is done in realtime, therefore unlike several website purporting to be online shopping malls but in actual sense are online classifieds, www.rmart.com.gh allows the customer to sit in the comfort of his room and by the click of a mouse place an order for product, pay online and receive delivery of the product via our courier partners,” DJoe Dzitse, Chief Operating Officer told TechMoran.
With competition from ZoobaShop and Ahonya Rmart says it aims to be the biggest online mall in the country with its over 30 registered shops selling through on its platform. With fear of fraud online, the firm is ensuring customer protection by making sure all payments by customers are held in escrow until the delivery company confirms delivery of the product to the customer after which payment is remitted to the vendor.
Kenya tobacco farmers join bid for favourable policies
Kenyan tobacco farmers together with African peers drawn from Zimbabwe, Malawi Zambia, and South Africa have resolved to negotiate with governments to be involved in policy formulation to safeguard their interests.
Representatives of tobacco growers, meeting last week under the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) in Harare, Zimbabwe,said government policies usually have a major impact on their livelihoods and should thus have their inputs.
ITGA President Francois van der Merwe said tobacco growers are alarmed that recommendations on tobacco proposed for the next Conference of the Parties (COP6) of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) would penalise growers for whom tobacco crops are a route out of poverty and a way of life.
“The people driving these policies are completely out of touch with reality and fail to recognise the positive economic contribution that tobacco growing makes to Africa,” he said.
“This is ahigh-value cash crop very much suited to small-hold farming, and has
changed the lives of many African farmers for the better.”
A proposed product amendment by the European Union on ingredients used in 
tobacco is threatening burley tobacco farmers globally. The effect of ingredients banned means that traditionally US-blended cigarettes can’t be manufactured anymore. Some of the ingredients have technological purposes like controlling the burn rate, acting as binders and fillers and preventing the tobacco from degrading.
President of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association Gavin Foster pointed out that most of the tobacco produced in Africa is exported.
“Growers are naturally concerned about efforts in the context of the FCTC to change the way tobacco is treated in the international trading system,” he said.
“If allowed, such changes would prevent tobacco-producing countries from
legitimately defending and benefiting from those exports.”
Tobacco growers, said Van der Merwe, have been excluded from presenting their views and have been denied any chance to engage with those pushing for these punitive measures.
“We are asking governments – and representative bodies such as the United Nations – to engage with us in a constructive dialogue instead of shutting the door on our lives.”
SpacePointe Online Marketplace to Enable African SMEs Increase their Bottom-line Revenue
Nigeria’s SpacePointe is focused on helping African Small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) increase their bottom line revenue in their Offline and Online market channels
By helping SME’s adopt Online Market Channel, SpacePointe says there is naturally a huge opportunity for ecommerce businesses across Africa and true adoption will come with understanding and creating a technology platform along with programs around how Africans buy their everyday products, browse the internet and pay for goods and services on a day-to-day basis.
“SpacePointe is focused on enabling African SMEs increase their bottom-line revenue via an online marketplace,” Sayu Abend – Chief Executive Officer told TechMoran. “We plan on launching the marketplace to enable SMEs very easily sell their products online without the incurring the cost associated with website development and marketing. SpacePointe has selected Nigeria as the pilot market with a distinct focus on 12 key states.”
Officially registered as a business in Nigeria this March by Sayu Abend CEO, Osato Osayande – President and COO, Edward Osayande, CFO and Karl Abend as the GM, SpacePointe says taking Nigeria as its pilot market where only 17% of the 17.6 Million registered SMEs in Nigeria have Point of Sale (POS) devices was a challenge.
However, with the “Cashless Society” Initiative by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Abend says there is the growing need to enable SMEs through the transition. SpacePointe is therefore partnering with notable players in the banking and technology space to distribute and setup mobile POS devices to SMEs as part its SME program enablement from Offline (at the store with a POS device) to the online marketplace.
“We were driven by the desire to live fulfilled lives in knowing that we have made a real difference in the lives of people,” Abend told TechMoran. “As people blessed with good education and exposure to innovation from all over the world, it became evident that we needed to look inward to a place we all call home and ask the very important question: “What can we do to help? With the knowledge and experience we have gained, what is our part in elevating the lives of Africans” At the end of the day, we want to say, “We accomplished what was entrusted into our hands, we helped people come out of poverty, we elevated the lives of people in Africa and we saw dreams become reality in the lives of Africans”
Abend adds that SpacePoint also launched to solve a need.
There were no startups in the online commerce sector with a genuine and thorough focus around the needs of the African SME. SMEs are fundamental to the economy and until they are properly considered and adequately enabled in a way that makes them truly thrive as SMEs, the African economy will not grow as well as it could and should.
Launching at DEMO Africa with 39 others, SpacePoint is polishing off the rest of the development before launch and slowly but steadily beginning to building its social network following.
SpacePointe is looking to provide an end-to-end solution for the African SME, there are two integrated solutions that will be embedded in the SME offering. It’s Online Marketplace will enable SME’ sell their products online without having to do website setup or payment processing and marketing. SpacePointe also aim to heavily market to consumers for the benefit of exposing them to SME offerings on the marketplace plus give them simple inventory management and easily understandable reporting that will be very insightful for the SME in helping them grow their business.
Another service will be the Mobile Point of Sale Device with multiple components to serve SME’s. It will also partner with and integrate with existing processors (acting only as a pass through) for the payment processing component of the POS.
“We do not plan to reinvent the wheel. We will collaborate with relevant partners to ensure that we are presenting the best end-to-end solution to the African SMEs,” Abend says.
The platform aims to make money by collecting a small fee for processing each online and offline transaction. The self-funded is very excited and really grateful to be among the DEMO Africa 40 where they are planning to launch.But there have been challenges along the way.”In deciding to go after this business, we were thankfully hit with comments like “but I thought these companies are already doing some part of what you are doing?” That question made us really zone into why SpacePointe exists today and what we feel makes us distinctly competent in this market,” says Abend. “It really does not matter if 50 companies have launched a similar product into the market place. What matters most is adoption. Early adopters can give the initial illusion of success until you look at the true facts. If we are still at 0.1% penetration rate in online buying in Africa, then we can safely say that we have not even scratched the surface of success.”SpacePointe has competition in both the offline and the online segments. But says its approach to tackle and integrate both channels for the benefit of the SME are there strong competitive advantage.”We believe that our market strategy gives us our distinctive competence. Again our focus is on the SME and we have done our homework in researching barriers to SME adoption as it relates to selling online as well as in their ability to accept cashless payments. It is not as simple as it seems. There are lots of barriers to overcome. We have taken the time to ask ourselves the question: “How can we fail in this business?” The answers (to this question) have driven our design of innovative solutions to meet the needs of the African SME,” Abend told TechMoran.
Mobile phones used to fight Diabetes in Senegal
The Ministry of Health in partnership with other stakeholders are in a drive to combat diabetes using mobile phones for creating awareness among diabetic patients and in training health professionals.
The mDiabetes project is themed “Be Healthy, Be Mobile” will make use of tools such as SMS and other applications, that will educate and raise awareness among the population and provide information on the disease to limit the occurrence of diabetes which is largely linked to lifestyle, and. be used for appointment reminders, lifestyle and dietary advice, and the proper observation of treatment to limit risks of complication
“Senegal is ready for this mDiabetes project which is in a way a natural extension of the eDiabetes program developed by UNFM. Since 2009, it has helped to establish strong ties of cooperation between France and Senegal around diabetes and new technologies,” said Dr Kleinebreil, Vice-President of the UNFM (Université Numérique Francophone Mondiale – a NGO specialized in using ICTs for education in Africa).
This project is a multiple partnership involving many major stakeholders such as the Senegalese government (Ministry of Health and Ministry of Communication), ITU (International Telecommunications Union), the WHO (World Health Organization), ASSAD (Senegalese Association for the Assistance and Support of Diabetes Patients), the African branch of the International Diabetes Federation, the NGO UNFM, the Marc Sankalé Diabetes Center, Alcatel-Lucent, Sonatel/Orange, BUPA (global international health insurance and services company), and Sanofi.
The Minister of Health and Social Action of Senegal, Dr. Awa Marie Coll Seck, announced during this ceremony that “Mobile phones offer potential that can be used for driving messages that promote health. Other mHealth projects around the globle have proven the effectiveness of using cell phones for messages about health”.
In order to overcome illiteracy and to make the initiative more effective, the Minister of Health and Social Action is planning to create voice messages that offer advice to people with diabetes. This initiative, which is inaugurated around the fasting month of Ramadan, is the first stage of the project in Senegal, with a larger and wider-reaching initiative which will be launched in November 2014.
Within the framework of this partnership, Alcatel-Lucent will provide the Ministry of Health and their partners in Senegal with the MNC technological platform mBox as in-kind contribution to the project and will be responsible for coordinating the SaaS platform (software services) and SAP mobile services for the pilot application of “mDiabetes”.
This platform will enable mobile services like SMS messages or other applications for widely distributing messages to be used for raising awareness and providing training for people with diabetes who have been identified by the National Center for Combating Diabetes, as well as training health professionals via cellular phones. The aim is to help implement strategies for preventing and combating diabetes and non-communicable diseases. For the end user, i.e. the person suffering from diabetes, it is an opportunity to directly interact with health professionals for better prevention and management of their disease.
For several years, Alcatel-Lucent has been actively working to promote social innovation in multi-stakeholder partnership mode to support mHealth and mLearning programs for health, which aim at providing better access to information on projects relating to health or training. These partnerships are built with companies from the private sector, governments, NGOs, international organizations and development banks, foundations and social entrepreneurs and are key to scaling mHealth
“We are convinced of the value of this project for improving the conditions for diabetes patients in Senegal and are genuinely delighted to be involved as a technological partner in contributing to the success of the mDiabetes project, which aims to improve prevention, raise awareness and combat diabetes and non-transmissible diseases in Senegal. This is an ambitious initiative which could ultimately be replicated in other countries in the fight against diabetes or any other disease,” said Alpin Verlet, Managing Director of Alcatel-Lucent for West and Central Africa.
The aim of the project is to better implement the national program for combating non-transmissible diseases in Senegal and the technology will consolidate and reinforce initiatives from the public and private sectors that benefit the population – raising awareness of the danger of diabetes, and the consequences that it can have on patients and their families, the importance of diagnosing the disease as early as possible and ensuring medical monitoring.
The WHO (World Health Organization) estimated that there will be 552 million diabetics in the world by 2030, 75% of whom will live in low-income countries and where diabetes will be the seventh cause of death in the world.
StarTimes Media to set up Kshs 6.9 Billion headquarters in Kenya
StartTimes media is set to launch a Ksh. 6.9 billion headquarters in Kenya that will also cater for the rest of Africa as well as double up for the Dubbing Center for Film and Broadcast Television in Kenya.
During the ground bre
aking ceremony held in Karen today, the company which marked its entry into the Kenyan market in 2009 revealed the completion date of the project for 2015.
This latest development is StarTime’s key investment in Africa and one likely to have a major positive impact on the country’s economy as more multinationals continue to grow their confidence in the country through set up of hub offices in Kenya.
During the event, the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Arts and Culture Dr. Hassan Wario congratulated StarTimes Media for this milestone noting that the Government remains committed to progressively ease the way of doing business in the country key in attracting increased foreign direct investment and subsequently improving the lives of Kenyans.
“I wish to commend StarTimes Media for this bold step, it is trend setting seeing that the headquarters will not only house your Africa operations, but also include a production centre that will see the growth of local productions and talents. The Government will continue to initiate efforts geared towards ensuring businesses flourish in their operations through such efforts as policy and infrastructure development.” Observed Dr. Wario.
According to the Group’s President Mr. Pang Xinxing, the decision to set up the Africa base in the country was advised by the sound investment environment in the country, a strong economy and the Government’s commitment towards attracting increased foreign direct investment. Mr. Pang equally noted the company’s role in promoting economic and social transformation in the country as StarTimes seeks to stamp its commitment to the Kenyan and Africa subscribers at large.
“Since establishing our operations in Kenya, we have found a cordial operating environment that has facilitated the growth of our business. The Kenyan subscribers have equally shown an insatiable appetite for affordable digital television service, this has seen increased uptake of our service which has gone a long way in giving us confidence to set up our Africa operations in the country,” said Mr. Pang.
The premise will cover 20,000 ㎡ in Karen, Nairobi and is expected to cost Ksh 6.9 Billion. The Base will see the setup of six units including StarTimes African Headquarter, StarTimes Kenya offices, a Film and Television Dubbing Center, StarTimes Broadcast Station, Digital TV research and development centre as well as a Training Center. Upon completion, this will equally become a complete production centre of clip selecting, dubbing, broadcasting and copyright trading.
Speaking during the ground breaking event, Mr Pang Xinxing emphasized the company will endeavor to work closely with the Kenyan Government and all stakeholders to grow the broadcasting sector key in bringing the latest technologies in the industry as a means to further boost access to information,’’ he said.
The ground breaking ceremony at Karen in Nairobi took place alongside the official launch of the Beijing Television Series Exhibition a series of programmes meant to expose top Chinese films and documentaries to African media and audience with the aim of promoting film and increased understanding of Chinese culture in Africa.
StarTimes has established the digital television network in ten (10) African countries so far where the company offers access to premium local and international channels of all genres including news, movies, sports, entertainment, music and documentaries.
The Digital Pay Tv provider will also be launching two new channels; Star Sport2 in July and Star Swahili in August.
Also present during the ground breaking ceremony was the Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Mr Liu Xianfa amongst other key dignitaries from both China and Kenya.
Ecobank Group Gets CMA Nod to Launch Investment Bank in Kenya
In a statement sent to TechMoran today, EBI Investment Corporation Kenya Limited, a subsidiary of Ecobank Capital announced it has been granted an investment bank license by the Capital Markets Authority in Kenya to set up an investment bank in the country.
Ecobank Capital is the investment banking arm of the Ecobank Group, with operating offices currently in Abidjan, Accra, Lagos and Douala, including dealing membership of five African stock exchanges: the Ghana Stock Exchange, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilières in Abidjan, Douala Stock Exchange and Bourse des Valeurs Mobilières d’Afrique Centrale in Libreville.
Ecobank Capital’s entry into Kenya follows its acquisition of the investment advisor Iroko Securities Kenya Limited in July 2013 and subsequent application to the Capital Markets Authority for an investment bank license in November 2013.
Ecobank Capital joins a growing number of financial services institutions in Kenya which are moving into investment banking to complement their commercial banking services, and comes along with the recent announcement by Ecobank Group of its plan to inject Sh8.8 billion ($100 million) over the next two years into its Kenyan subsidiary Ecobank Kenya Limited to strengthen its position as hub for the Group’s East Africa regional operations.
Speaking when he announced the CMA licensing, Mr Ehouman Kassi, Managing Director of Ecobank Kenya and head of Ecobank’s East Africa regional cluster, said “increased corporate activities in the East Africa and SADC regions have created a vibrant environment for investment banking”.
Mr. Moyo Kamgaing, Managing Director of Ecobank Capital, said that EBI Investment Corporation Kenya Limited’s business activities will encompass equity & debt capital markets, structured trade and commodity finance, project finance, and corporate advisory targeting East Africa’s oil & gas, infrastructure (power, ports, roads, airports and telecommunications), commodities and FMCG sectors.
In the past two years, Ecobank Capital has arranged over USD 4 billion in financing for private and public sector clients across 12 African countries.
Autogenie.tv Launches Video Car Classifieds Site in Kenya
US-based startup Autogenie.tv, a new, online video-based car buying and selling platform has launched in Kenya in a move to help sellers to showcase their cars by uploading videos that provide invaluable visual information to prospective buyers.
The firm says video will make buying and selling cars easier as it’s Kenya’s first, online video-based automotive portal that allows private sellers and car dealers to showcase their new as well as used cars, by uploading short videos, embedding existing YouTube videos or creating video presentations from pictures.
“Kenya is experiencing a boom in every sector. The automotive industry is growing at a tremendous rate. Everyday more and more Kenyans are searching for vehicles online,” said Shannon Langmeier, CEO of Autogenie.tv. “Our video portal enables sellers to showcase their cars by uploading videos that provide prospective buyers with a virtual vehicle inspection. By launching in Kenya, we have brought in an innovation that the automotive industry here has never seen before.”
The platform aims to provide a complete and compelling virtual car browsing experience that allows potential buyers from all over the world to access and view car details inside and out like this Car Advertisement. The video comprehensively provides an up close and personal experience to an interested buyer.
Vehicle sales in Kenya have risen significantly in the last few years due to growing demand among the country’s growing middle class who are trading public transport for new, personal cars.
New videos listed by sellers are automatically shared through a variety of popular social media sites thus actively targeting customers and attracting buyers from all over the world.
To top it off, the website has an auto-translate feature that ensures users can interact in a variety of languages on the website, expanding the market for buyers and sellers beyond national borders.
The site aims to serve Kenya, Nigeria, Switzerland and US. One Africa Media’s Cheki and Rocket Internet’s Carmudi might decide to launch video listings too even though they are so involving and time wasting for dealers and will easily swallow Autogenie. The founder also need to rethink the name to be as simple as counterparts Cheki and AutoBazaar and Kenyacarbazaar among others.
Watch some of the listings here.
Naija Tech Guide Wins Big in Konga Affiliate Program
Mr Paschal Okafor, owner of the Naija Tech Guide website-focused on technology news, reviews, specs and prices of gadgets has become the first to win Konga.com’s Konga Affiliate to make a Million Naira!
Mr Okafor has been promoting products featured on Konga.com site for many months now and has accrued a commission of up to a million naira. He was recently hosted to a warm reception at the Konga Headquaters.
In a statement, Gabriel Gab-Umoden, Head of Marketing at Konga said: “We are quite pleased with this new development. At Konga, we are always on the lookout for ways to reward our promoters and customers alike. And we are grateful for the support we have gotten from all our affiliates. We hope to make more people millionaires through this program”
The Konga Affiliate initiative was initiated last year and tagged the ‘Konga Associate program‘. This was done in a bid to reward promoters of the Konga brand and to enable them earn some commission for every sale made through their media channels.
Currently, the program now has over 2,500 partners who are driving new users and sales to Konga.com. The partners use different media channels to promote Konga products – websites, search engines, social media networks, postings in forums, or email. They also get paid when a visitor sent to Konga.com via an affiliate link actually makes a purchase on the site.
The Associate Program is open to anyone anywhere who is willing to promote Konga products for a commission.
Nigerian Youth urged To Imitate Soyinka
Nigeria’s governor of Ogun state, Ibikunle Amosun, has stated his concern regarding lack of quality role models for the youth in the modern era.
In his speech that was read by his Special Assistant on Media (Print) Sola Balogun, Amosun urged the nation’s youth to aspire to become international intellectual figure like Soyinka, whom he described as an “international and intellectual Icon” that attained the feat through literary works.
Amosun stated: “the nice things about Ogun State we are bringing them forward so that the younger ones can learn something positive from them. Our youth can challenge themselves to be like Wole Soyinka who was once a youth. “You can study to be an international figure. The problem we have now is that we are becoming more and more bereft of quality role models for the youths but all hope is not lost for Nigeria. We can still pick good role models for yourself, and in the interest of the family, state and the country.”
Balogun represented Amosun at an event that marked Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday ceremony in Abeokuta, the state capital. The event featured spelling competition, debate, reading contests among selected secondary school students.
ITU Calls Open-Source Technology startups for challenge in Doha
ITU, a United Nations agency for information and communication technology, is looking for start-ups that work with open-source technologies for disaster management to take part in its “Young innovators Competition – ITU Telecom World 2014” competition.
“We are looking for communication technologies, teaching tools, new equipment to save lives during a disaster, and new tools to help clean up, recover and rebuild after the event. Examples of open source technologies used in disaster management may include 3D printing, UAVs, Raspberry Pi and Arduino – we invite you to surprise us with your innovative approach,” announced ITU.
The criteria of disaster management include disaster preparedness, early warning, emergency communication and response, and recovery from natural disasters.
Cisco Steps Up To Re-conceive Collaboration For Businesses In Kenya
Businesses in Kenya should, now more than ever, provide the workforce with tools that allow them to collaborate at a moment’s notice and without technical hitches. In a bid to make to improve interconnectivity within and outside organizations, Cisco has delivered three new personal collaboration tools. One will sit on the physical desktop and the other in the cloud.
Cisco introduced DX70 and DX80 desktop collaboration devices. The Android-based DX70 and DX80 streamlines and simplifies work lives by providing access to all the top tools and applications highly collaborative work requires just like a smartphone does.
“The new DX70 and DX80 were designed from the ground up to provide the best collaboration experience for every desk in an enterprise in Kenya. They are truly mind-blowing devices,” said Sabrina Dar, Cisco GM for East Africa.
To provide excellent video experiences via the on-premise TelePresence solutions well in the cloud, Cisco WebEx®, Collaboration Meeting Rooms (CMRs), now combine the power of TelePresence with the scale and flexibility of WebEx.
“CMRs provide individuals with their own personal, video collaboration space in the cloud. These rooms give you the ability to host meetings where attendees can join from the device of their choice,” Cisco said.
In marking its15th year of innovation in IP phones, Cisco is also introducing the IP Phone 8800 Series, which consist of “best-performing audio IP phone” the company admits it has ever delivered.
It also includes USB ports on select models for easy mobile-device charging, and Cisco Intelligent Proximity for Mobile Voice to allow employees to import contacts and call history, or transfer the audio path of a voice or video call-in-progress from their mobile device to their 8800 Series desk phone.
“Combined with the Collaboration Meeting Room service, users can now have their own always-on private meeting room to collaborate with anyone on any device at any time,
“Only Cisco is offering its customers the unique opportunity to combine this amazing hardware, the incredible software, and the powerful network to provide anyone with their own dedicated collaboration space in the cloud – and on their desk,” said Sabrina.
Samsung Launches first Curved TV in Ghana
Samsung Electronics has launched its new 2014 Ultra High Definition (UHD) LED television in Ghana. The TV becomes the first curved UHD TV to sell in the West African country.
Vishwas Saxena, the Director for Consumer Electronics at Samsung Electronics West Africa, said that the new range builds on Samsung’s commitment to innovation in television technology and showcases its advancements in product design by offering Ghanaians an “unforgettable, immersive viewing experience.”
“Everything looks more realistic and eye-pleasing on this screen. The unmatched resolution allows the viewing of 4K picture quality and vivid natural colours. Samsung’s Auto Depth Enhancer technology brings the impressive picture quality to life,” said Saxena.
The new TV has about four times the resolution of full HD TVs and delivers sharp, profoundly in-depth pictures. The Samsung up-scaling technology process converts low resolution content to 4K level picture quality through detection and noise reduction.
Aesthetically, this TV is quite something, as it has a three-dimensional effect. The curved design provides a bold new cinematic experience for the home users, with a curvature of 4200 radius (4200r).
The surround view provided by the curved screen gives a wider field of view triggering panorama effect. The concave curve of the screen fits the shape of the human eye for optimized comfort. There is a uniformed distance between the surface are of the curved screen and the user, thus offering a uniformed viewing experience while simultaneously minimizing image distortion on each side of the screen area.
The new Curved UHD TV is expected to go on sale in Ghana by end of this month.
Microsoft expected to layoff employees
Microsoft is likely to send home between five and 10 percent of its entire workforce when it releases its financial report on July 22.
Although the rumour has milled around for weeks, Microsoft is yet to discuss its future staff reduction in detail.
During an interview, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, appeared to make fun of the widely different word post he had published on Thursday. The message clearly read “Big changes are on the way.” Nadella was content with the manner in which Microsoft employees received his message.
The anticipated staff reductions are in particular likely to affect some 25,000 employees who the company included in the payroll after closure of the deal to acquire Nokia’s cellphone business for up to $7.2 billion in April, reported Cnet.
Rick Sherlund, who is a Nomura Securities analyst and a veteran Microsoft watcher, said they read the menu that was addressed to the employees on Thursday. He pointed out that the company gave the impression that it was making organizational changes to cut down management layers, stimulate innovation, fix accountability and implement organizational changes.
Nadella estimated that Microsoft could reduce costs by about $1 billion through a 25-percent reduction in the Nokia business.
In his letter, Nadella promised the public of a more nimble Microsoft. He intends to “streamline” the engineering process and cut down the amount of energy and time it takes to get things done.
“You can look forward to have fewer processes though more focused and measurable results. You will also see fewer people involved in decision-making and more emphasis put on accountability,” said Nadella.
Nadella is no longer the “new” boss at Microsoft though he intends to make it clear soon that Microsoft will be his company.
Microsoft refused to comment on Sherlund’s report.
Young Freddie Clothing Wants You to Promote African Culture & Look Good
Kenya’s YoungFreddie clothing, a designing company specializing in footwear, T-shirts, shorts, blazers, trousers and shirts with an African touch aims to promote local design and fashion and amke it timeless.
Founded by Fredrick Gitari aka Young Freddie, the store has a wide variety of comfort shoes, blazers, T-shirts, Chinos and vests ranging from the traditional African prints like Ankara from West Africa, Kitenge from East and Central Africa, Masaai prints from East Africa, Silk, Kente, leather and many others.
“With love for fashion since high school, my dream was to become a fashion designer. So, after my O-level examinations I had to hustle to make ends meet while doing online training that I learnt all the skills,” Gitari told TechMoran.
To Gitari the business came about from the desire to promote local fashion that can compete on an international level by promoting African culture.That’s why he designs shoes and clothing with an African timeless style.
“I was also inspired by the Maasai community who have maintained their culture and identity from generation to generation using their clothing. I wanted to come up with something that everybody will be comfortable to wear and be proud of, and that is why my designs have an African touch.”
Launched two years ago offline, Gitari took to a Facebook page called YoungFreddie Clothing to reach out to more customers and recently launched a website to take in both local and international orders, though the backend for the ordering system is not yet live.
With plans to go international, Young Freddie designs custom made shoes for customers acording to their specifications and style. Clients can also choose the type of shoes they want, the material to be used and the of course the size. Gitari who is a self-taught designer, designs the shoes and clothing, and does all the cutting and then a tailor stitches them together using stitching machine, adhesive glue in some parts and others handmade.
Though several orders have been sold, both locally and internationally, Gitari has had his fair share of troubles apart from just shipping the shoes.
“First of all,my main challege has been on finance. This forces me to do other jobs just to make sure I afford materials or run some errand before an order is shipped to a customer. I also would like to own my own machines and a stall but I haven’t been able to afford them,” Gitari says. “Secondly, it’s been hard for people to appreciate our designs just because I design them locally, they expect to buy them cheaply.”
Gitari sees established footwear and fashion joints such as Bata retailers, Woolworths, Mr. Price, Jade and second hand outlets as competition. There are several designers trying their hand at what he does too. The Nailab incubated startup aims to raise funds to grow big, hire more and be able to meet the growing demand of African designs.
Carmudi Nigeria Hosting Car Dealers Forum
Carmudi Nigeria is hosting car dealers in the country at Planet One, 3 Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos, on the 17th of July 2014 at 3.00pm.
Hosted by Mohammed Iyamu, Head of Sales, Carmudi Nigeria, the forum dubbed ‘The Next Level’, aims to help car dealers using its platform to stay abreast of the developments in the automobile sector especially for them as dealers. Carmudi says it will “share our experience and innovation with them on issues that would allow them function better in the market.”
Backed by Rocket Internet, Carmudi.com.ng is an online market place for new and used cars in Nigeria and is present in over 15 other countries in Africa and claims over 30,000 unique automobile listings in Nigeria alone. The platform, running steadily behind One Africa Media’s Cheki says it wants to be an easy and accessible platform to allow customers search for their dream car all over Nigeria from the comfort of their home, offices and on mobile phones.
Meeting car dealers will be up the firm’s PR, and might help it connect with the car dealers locally and sign up more of them who are predominantly offline. With a population of over 170 million people, the Nigerian market is open for more players in verticals such as car, jobs, property and furniture. However, because the market is huge, it will also need a huge budget to reach and acquire customers.
Car classifieds such as Carmudi Nigeria verify and ok all dealers and sellers on their site to ensure trust and curb fraud, which is lacked amongst buyers and sellers.
To attend the forum dealers are asked to register or contact the firm via 08034445946, 08181750994, 09095324172 or 08024328076.
Glo Boosts Roaming Service With 100 Additional Partners
Globacom has give a boost to its roaming services offering with the addition of over 100 leading network partners across the world in the last one year making it one of the biggest voice and data carriers in Africa.
Glo Nigeria’s prepaid roaming has been extended with partnerships with over 80 leading networks in countries such as the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, South Africa, Ghana, UAE, Algeria, Belgium, Italy, India, Israel, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, Cameroon, Egypt, Gambia, Kenya, Russia, Turkey and Qatar.
Postpaid subscribers of the company can enjoy seamless roaming services in almost every part of the world as Glo has interconnectivity arrangements with over 430 partners in 176 countries.
Head of Glo Gateway, Globacom’s international services arm, Steve Stretch said, “Glo Gateway’s mission is to build strong customer relationships, loyalty and satisfaction by delivering high-quality cost-effective international communications services on the African continent and the Rest of the World through a state-of-the-art network infrastructure, best in class business practices and its empowered, highly skilled employees.”
Glo’s General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) roaming footprint is also one of the largest as it enables data roaming for mobile phones, laptops, ipads, Blackberry and android handsets is available in 115 countries comprising all major travel destinations.
In 2004, Globacom made history as the first operator in Africa to launch gateway switches outside the continent to carry international voice and data traffic in the United Kingdom and Africa which have strategically positioned the network as a major player in the global telecommunication industry as they have enabled Glo Gateway to directly interconnect with other leading international carriers.
Most county reps need to learn to use iPads
Although many children have some skills when it comes to using electronic gadgets, it appears that some Kisumu MCAs have difficulty in using a tablet, jokes The Star.
It is because of this that 49 Kisumu MCAs will attend a three-day intensive course on how to use Apple iPad 4.
The training will be financed by county taxpayers, though the cost of the transport, meals, venue and teaching has not yet been disclosed. Aslam Khan, who is a nominated MCA, however said three days are not adequate to master iPad skills.
According to James Omollo, who is the Information, Communication and Technology chairperson, MCAs were issued with the iPads last month to use them in various assembly processes. The gadgets are also intended to reduce the use of papers in county operations. It is also expected to cut down the cost of printing documents for MCAs.
Chemelil ward representative Joseph Osano, however expressed that the gadgets would not improve the lives of Kisumu County residents.
Foton to Assemble Cars at its Ksh 1B Assembly Plant in Kenya
Foton East Africa Ltd has announced it will be assembling cars at its new Kshs. 1 billion FOTON assembly plant located in Embakasi off Mombasa road in Nairobi and create over 150 jobs.
The production base for East Africa market in Nairobi is on 10 acres of land, contains a customs bonded factory, body workshop and customs bonded warehouse with the production capacity of 3000 units per year. Foton says it will be able to assemble a wide range of vehicles including vans, prime movers, light commercial trucks, tippers, buses and pick-ups.
The firm today unveiled the VIEW CS2 VAN which is the latest addition to its models on sale in the Kenyan and East African market. The VIEW CS2 VAN will also be assembled in Kenya and will retail across all the FOTON outlets.
The unveiling of the vehicle was witnessed by a Beijing Government delegation led by Mr. Guo Jinlong, the President of Beiqi Foton Group, Mr. Wan Jinyu, the Speaker of the Senate, Hon. Ekwe Ethuro, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mr. James Macharia and FOTON customers.
Foton started operations in Kenya in 2010 as an exclusive franchiser of Foton Motors in East Africa for a full range of Folan Vehicle models including Pickups, SUVs, Lorries, Tippers, Prime Movers and variety of buses.
Female executive at Yahoo! charged for sexual harassment
Maria Zhang, Yahoo’s senior director of engineering, faces charges for sexually harassing a female colleague. In the lawsuit, Zhang is accused of pressurizing Nan Shi, a principle software engineer at Yahoo, for sex on numerous occasions.
According to the lawsuit, Zhang promised Shi a successful career in the company if she accepted her sexual advances. On Shi’s refusal, Zhang allegedly gave her a negative performance review and discharged her from her position as a project leader.
Shi claimed that she reported the matter to the company’s senior executive, and was instead placed on unpaid leave before eventual dismissal.
A Yahoo representative told Mercury News that the allegations against Zhang are baseless.
“Maria is an excellent Yahoo executive and we plan to fight strongly to clear her name,” the Yahoo representative said.
Zhang is in charge of developer-tool and content teams for various mobile properties of the company, including News Digest and Yahoo Sports. She plays a central role in the company’s mobile efforts, which is a vital position in Yahoo’s plan to improve the lurching internet portal.
The lawsuit names Yahoo as the defendant and mentions three causes of damage, including sexual harassment, wrongful termination and deliberate infliction of emotional stress.
Samsung faces child labor allegations
A Chinese non-profit has directed its fire at Samsung accusing the electronics maker of partnering with shady suppliers who exploit minors.
China Labor Watch (CLW), a non-profit organization that oversees Chinese manufacturers, has issued a report that highlights several incidences of child labor at the Shinyang Electronics factory. The report also pointed out that Samsung’s auditing systems are “ineffective.”
In the report, CLW reveals many cases where Samsung’s suppliers employed children who work without labor contracts. The non-profit stated that while the children work for 11 hours of the day, they are only paid for 10 of those hours.
Earlier this year, Guangzhou Daily reported cases where minor workers were found using fake IDs at a factory in Dongguan. When reached for comments, China responded that it is investigating the allegations and would respond appropriately to put off any incident of child labor within it supply chain.
Samsung further revealed that it routinely carries out inspections — as part of its pledge against child labor — to keep an eye on the suppliers. Regarding the supplier in question, the company took in March 2013 a thorough audit, which was followed by a third party inspection in August 2013 and June 2014. During these audits, no cases of child labor were established.
Mi3 Smartphones Hit 10 million plus sales
Chinese Mi3 phones have hit 10 million plus sales, beating Apple in China.Manufactured by Xiami, the Mi3 phone uses customized version of Google’s Android operating system.
The five-inch display smartphone comes with an inbuilt 16GB, 1080p IPS and a 2.3GHz Qualcomm snapdragon 800 processor. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front facing camera.
Xiaomi revealed earlier this week that the handset sales for all its smartphones in the first half of this year had exceeded 26 million units, compared to 18.7 million sales a year ago.
Established in 2010, Xiami has grown a routine of selling its merchandise through online shops and minimal marketing. It is currently looking to expand its markets to India, Singapore and Malaysia.
Money Remittance in Africa is Broken | Ghana’s Bitcoin Startup Kitiwa is Fixing it
Global payment providers and remittance companies make it difficult for Sub-Saharan Africans to send and receive money. The explicit blacklisting of entire African countries by firms such as PayPal and exorbitant remittance fees by the likes of WesternUnion, MoneyGram among others stifle economic development in this region.
With USD 50’000 in funding from the Meltwater Foundation, Ghana’s Kitiwa finds this unacceptable and starting with Ghana and Nigeria, Kitiwa says it using modern technology to enable Sub-Saharan Africans to send and receive money cheaply, and instantly.
Founded in Accra, Ghana, June this year, Kitiwa is a Bitcoin financial services company focused on enabling simple online payments and fast, low-cost remittances for Africans. Since launch last month, Kitiwa has served over 40,000 USD in transaction volume and was recently feted as the best startup in the country by Seedstars World Accra, an emerging markets startups competition.
Speaking to TechMoran, Nikunj Handa, CEO, Kitiwa said the firm is excited to be among the DEMO Africa top 40. and plans to use the platform to launch its services in Nigeria.
“We are very excited about launching our services in Nigeria at the DEMO Africa event. It is going to be a big stage for us. We hope to get the word out on Kitiwa to a large audience in Nigeria and to the rest of Africa,” said Handa. “As of now, we only allow customers to buy Bitcoins from us in order to help them with their online payments. Soon after DEMO, we plan to tackle the remittance industry by allowing people to sell Bitcoins on the platform in exchange for local currencies.”
Kitiwa wants to help users to simply buy bitcoins by following a few easy steps.
A user goes to kitiwa.com and selects how many US dollars worth of Bitcoins they want. A user then enters their Bitcoin wallet address to tell Kitiwa where to deliver his or her bitcoins (here’s how to create a free Bitcoin wallet in seconds) and then a user pays for their order with MPower Payments (here’s how to create a free MPower account and deposit money into it). After all these, a user will receive their Bitcoin order in their Bitcoin wallet within a few minutes after payment.
The firm charges a markup on the price of Bitcoins sold. Although Kitiwa is a for-profit company, it says it does not aim to explicitly maximise its profits at the expense of the benefits to its customers and charge exorbitant rates like its competitors. At the moment, the firm is educating users on the Bitcoin technology, which is a constant challenge but the team is coming up with innovative ways to solve this problem.
Kitiwa’s competition in the online payments sector from Paypal, Visa and MasterCard and from the remittance sector from companies like WesternUnion, MoneyGram among others. However, the competition is not gonna break them.
“We use the Bitcoin technology as the foundation behind our services, which is far superior than what our competitors use,” Handa says. “Bitcoin transactions are instant (compared to our competitions 2-3 day average), cheap (< USD 0.10 regardless of amount, compared to our competitions 12% average), globally accessible, and decentralised as the Bitcoin technology doesn’t blacklist anyone the way our competition does.”
Kitiwa aims to make payments and transfers cheap and instant for everyone.
GrowthAfrica Impact Accelerator Announces Its 6th Batch of Social Enterprises
After a successful GrowthAfrica Agribusiness incubator in quarter one of 2014, Nairobi based GrowthAfrica has announced the 13 agricultural enterprises that have joined its 6th accelerator class.
Listed below, the 13 were selected form over 165 top notch applications submitted, where only 45 were shortlisted and 24 teams were interviewed and allowed pitch to a panel of investors and mentors before the final thirteen.
The start-up teams will get the chance to work experienced facilitators, peers, key industry players, and a carefully selected group of successful mentors and access to investors at the annual GrowthAfrica venture forum. Apart from the 16 in house workshops, GrowthAfrica will also host experienced professionals to share their expertise to help the entrepreneurs grow their enterprises and scale to the next level.
“The accelerator program has a particular focus on growing operations and scaling the impact of social enterprises,” said Patricia Jumi, MD GrowthAfrica. “This is really an impressive crew of ambitious entrepreneurs and capable teams building high impact for profit enterprises solving challenges in different agriculture value chains across the country and East Africa.”
Agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy and provides livelihood, employment and generates income for over 75 % of the Kenyan population. The sector is among the key drivers envisaged to deliver the 10% annual economic growth stipulated in the Economic Pillar of Vision 2030. Currently, agriculture directly represents 26 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and another 25 percent indirectly through its linkages with manufacturing, distribution and service industries in Kenya.
However the growth of the sector in Kenya is hampered by huge challenges faced by small holder farmers, large agribusinesses and key actors in the agriculture value chain that require sustainable solutions through scalable for profit enterprises.
The 13 include:
FarmbizAfrica.com, an online media company that specialises in disseminating relevant information to small scale farmers in Africa through their portal farmbizafrica.com
Animal Minerals & Allied Limited: Animal Minerals & Allied develops and sells hydroponic systems that enable livestock farmers to grow their own fodder and also vegetable farmers to efficiently and effectively grow their crops ensuring a consistent and regular quality to the market.
Aquaponics East Africa Limited: Aquaponics East Africa develops, supplies and installs aquaponicsystems for horticulturaland fish farmers in East Africa. Encouraging the sustainable production of vegetables, fruits and fish.
Essentia Kanan Limited: Essentia Kanan formulates, produces and sells bio fertilisers and soil amendments ensuring that small holder farmers have fortified soiland can increase their productivity using affordable organic fertiliser.
Green Savannah Limited: Green Savannah produces and markets pre-cooked enhanced, traditionalporridge products for children of all ages, ensuring that they have access to an affordable and nutritious mealdaily and on the go.
Kenya Biologics Limited: Kenya Biologics manufactures and distributes natural, organicpesticides for crop protection to small holder farmers in East Africa.
HomeRange Poultry: Homerange Poultry Kenya is primarilya hatchery specializing in improved kienyejichicken (IKC). They rear and breed improved indigenous chicken for the retail consumer market and aim to be the largest improved kienyejipoultry producing company in East and Central Africa.
MolaPlus Limited: MolaPlus manufactures microbial food supplements for the enhanced nutritional uptake and improved productivity in livestock and chicken. This increases the farmer’s produce production as well as their revenues
Premier Seeds Limited: Premier Seeds produce, package, market and distribute their own developed brand of hybrid vegetable seeds at affordable prices. They also provide the farmers with pertinent information on quality seeds and assist farmers achieve a quality harvest.
Sare Millers Limited: Sare Millers produces enhanced and fortified protein rich animal feeds that are sold to small holder farmers dealing with livestock and poultry through their one stop shop concept ensuring that the farmers have access to correct information and market information.
Saumu Centre Limited: Saumu Centre produces garlic bulbs, sells and processes garlicboth for industrial and home consumption.
Soko Text Limited: Soko Text improves the access of perishable agricultural products to kiosks in many urban slum areas by aggregating the necessary orders and delivering them at very affordable prices to the kiosk owners.
CEO Weekends: Chura.co.ke to Expand Across East Africa| Rolling Out a USSD & Android App
Kenya’s Chura, Swahili name for Frog, an Airtime for Cash Service signifying the transition in leaping from one mobile network to another is set to launch a USSD platform to change the status quo, especially in a country where mobile money interoperability has failed to work.
“We plan on rolling out our USSD platform to facilitate easy and free access to our services and also introduce a mobile app for the smart phone market for a better experience for our users,” said Stephanie Gaku, a co-founder. “We are also looking to replicate our service in other Multi-SIM markets in the region and we are also on track to launch some new products and services.”
Launched on 1st December 2013 in Nairobi-Kenya, by a group of friends Samuel Njuguna, Stephanie Gaku, Njogu Kinyanjui, Jack Kinga and Byron Sitawa all alumina of the University of Nairobi, Chura.co.ke allows one to switch airtime-transfer airtime across networks, buy airtime from any network using any mobile money service, does Airtime for Cash conversion and fourthly allows users to send their friends bulk airtime to multiple phone numbers at the click of a button.
The team, Samuel Njuguna, Jack Kinga and Stephanie Gaku all Computer Science graduates and Byron Sitawa and Njogu Kinyanjui who studied Industrial Chemistry and Architecture respectively, developed Chura when they realized most Kenyan mobile subscribers use different networks for different purposes. Now planning to go across the region, the service will be of great help especially in countries where there is no mobile money reversal services.
“An example is a subscriber that has one line for calls, another for texts and another for the internet. We thought it would be convenient to be able to serve all these lines from a single point in a fast and efficient way, Stephanie Gaku told TechMoran. “The airtime for cash service was created for users that had a lot of airtime, wanted to convert it to cash but had no avenue to do this”
Gaku adds that at times users buy airtime erroneously from their mobile money account and there was no reversal. Chura sorted that.
The platform works simply. A user makes a request-online or through SMS for the service they would like to do. User sends airtime or mobile money to Chura. Chura sends airtime or mobile money to their desired number.
Chura makes its cut from selling the remitted airtime and also charges a fee for its services. Currently bootstrapped, Chura has had its bad days especially financial and also faced problems with network operators who at times closed up their technologies to them but the team has had to be creative and sacrifice their personal funds to see themselves through it all.
Their main competitors are retail airtime vendors though because the retailers are brick and mortar businesses, they are limited by time and location and their airtime is always in fixed denominations and unavailable at times. Mobile Service Providers also avail airtime directly to users via mobile money, emergency credit and redeeming of loyalty points, but only within their networks.
Chura is available on its web portal and via SMS 24/7 and also allow for any amount of airtime to and from any network at affordable rates. Currently incubated at UON’ C4DLab, the startup has received positive interest and offers from investors, but is yet to take up any. However, the team is excited to be among the DEMO Africa finalists.
“We are excited and honored about being part of DEMO Africa 2014. The opportunity to showcase our product, network with industry professionals and gain insight from peers and receive constructive feedback from leaders in the space is a reward in itself and we don’t take it for granted,” Gaku concludes.
Khusela named best startup in Seedstars Capetown
Khusela, a low-cost fire detection device and integrated alert service, features as the best startup at the just concluded Seedstars World competition in Cape Town.They win a trip to Switzerland to pitch against other regional winners and stand a chance of winning US$500,000 in funding.
Khusale’s device is an innovative heat detector, as opposed to a smoke detector. In the event of a fire, the device detects the high temperature and begins ringing to alert those inside the dwelling. Other devices with 100-metre radius are also triggered creating a community wide call to action. It is however not-suited for the informal settlement environment given the prevalent cooking, heating and lighting methods in place.
Speaking at the event, Khusela’s CEO David Gluckman stated: “Seedstars World is just what South African startups need, as they bring international attention and investment opportunities to Cape Town. We cannot wait to go to Geneva!”
Peach Payment, a payment platform focused on the merchant side and Hoja, a mobile application deployment platform came in second and third position respectively.
For its return to South Africa, Seedstars World partnered with Cape Town Garage and the Dubai based accelerator Turn8, which offered potential program slots to RLabs startups Hoja and Cinemo. The event was further supported by the Silicon Cape and Johannesburg based Enterpriseroom, whose Founder Leora Rajak spoke about female empowerment through entrepreneurship.
In a statement Sam Meyer, General Manager of the Cape Town Garage said of the event: “The Seedstars Cape Town event brought investors, VCs, and off course, high quality startups together in a very unique setting. The Cape Town Garage looks forward to partnering with Seedstars Cape Town again next year!”
Turn8’s Kamal Hassan, Leora Rajak from Entrepriseroom, French Entrepreneur Alexandre Stern, and Seedstars World Scout Nellie Horn rounded out the jury.
The next stop of the tour is the Seedstars Bangalore on 19 July 2014. It continues on to Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Manila, Jakarta, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Mexico City, Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo.