Nigeria’s money transfer and payments service, Paga which allows users to send and receive cash, pay bills, power merchants and buy airtime over mobile phones and web is celebrating five years with over 1.3 million users and over 7 million transactions and 80 Naira billion in to date.
The firm announced,” Since receiving our CBN operating licence in 2011, we are now a 200 person strong team and our collective vision has touched over a million Nigerians, created a nationwide network of over 4,470 agents in 25 states and we currently serve over 1,350 businesses.”“In 5 years, we have come far but only because you – our customers, agents, business partners and investors, were brave enough to take this journey with us. We thank you for your support and we are excited to celebrate this milestone with all of you. We hope as the journey continues you will remain our faithful companions as we work tirelessly to be the number 1 way to pay, get paid and make your life better,” the firm said.
Founded in April 2009, Paga aims to transform lives by delivering innovative and universal access to financial services and says he is the safest and most convenient way to send money to anyone either via mobile phone or on any internet enabled device.
LINE app has announced it has reached over 400 million registered users across all platforms since it launch in 2011.
According to Akira Morikawa, CEO of LINE Corporation,” One of our goals for 2014 was to reach over 500 million users and today we’ve been able reach the milestone of 400 million. I’d like to thank all our users and supporters for their help so far.”
Morikawa said the growth was due to the rapid proliferation of smartphones which however has also led to increasing competition in the global communications app market.
“We believe that this shows that messaging services have become the crux of our mobile society, and demonstrates their incredible worth. With all of this in mind, LINE aims to further its growth and become the world’s top communications infrastructure, taking on many new challenges along the way,” Morikawa added.
With both voice and video calls as well as stickers and text messages, LINE had over 300 million users in by November last year. it’s growing user numbers were in countries like North America and Europe adding to the already large user bases in Spain, Southeast Asia, and other countries. At the same time, the amount of daily new users reached a record-breaking number of around 1.7 million per day, indicating rapid growth worldwide.
Since the start of the new year the amount of countries with over 10 million registered users rose to a total of 10, including America, Korea, Malaysia, and Mexico. LINE has also recorded over 10 billion chat messages a day, 1.8 billion sticker messages a day and over 12 million phone calls a day.
LINE has also been adding new features such as LINE Call, which was announced in February to allow users to call landlines and cellular phones for low prices, and the LINE Creators Market, where users can create and sell their own original stickers.
Telecel Zimbabwe is the title sponsor of the 2014 DragPro Racing Series, which begins at Donnybrook on Sunday, the second year in a row it has been the title sponsor.
Racing begins at 11.30am. The admission charge for those wanting to watch this exciting sport is five dollars, with children under 12 being admitted free of charge.
Last year Telecel became the first drag racing title sponsor in Zimbabwe, providing a boost for local drag racing.
It was presented with an appreciation award in February at the Zimbabwe Motor Sport Federation’s prestigious Annual National Championship Prize Giving for its support for and contribution to Zimbabwe Motorsport in 2013.
Last year’s series, which was named the Telecel 2013 DragPro Drag Racing Series in recognition of Telecel’s sponsorship, attracted new participants and brought new spectators to witness the thrills of drag racing. There were six events in the series.
The DragPro Club has recognised Telecel not only for its sponsorship but for bringing new public spectators to motorsport as a result of its far reaching network.
Telecel public relations and corporate social responsibility manager Francis Chimanda said Telecel had once again decided to sponsor the sport because of its increasing popularity.
“A lot of people now watch and support the sport. By the time the 2013 series came to an end the number of spectators as well as participants had grown dramatically. We hope the number will grow further this year,” he said.
This year the series will consist of four events, this weekend’s April event and events in May, July and October.
Drag racing involves two cars or two motorbikes racing against each other over a measured distance, with spectators watching from both sides of the track.
The winner of the race is the driver of the first vehicle to cross the finish line. The loser drops out, while the winner takes on a new challenger until an overall winner eventually emerges.
Novare Equity Partners, is on a mission to start another property fund which will inject $250 million in Nigeria and other African countries’ urban real estate. It will be known as the Novare Africa Property Fund II, succeeding the Novare Africa Property Fund I that shut down three years ago.
“Persistence and the need to make a long-term commitment, both financially and to your people in the country, are important attributes for success,” said Jan van Zyl, Head of Property Development at Novare Equity Partners.
He added that based on the past experience he has learnt a lot about doing business in Nigeria since the launch of the first fund; pointing out that it was costly and that there are major obstacles to enter.
“However, the factors that make Nigeria worth this sort of trouble include the size of its $432 billion economy that is expanding by around 7 percent a year, its fast-growing middle class and a continuous inflow of foreign exchange from oil and gas exports,” said van Zyl.
Kenya has yet again stood out in the technology realm as three Kenyan units have made it to the top three of Fast Company business technology magazine’s list; the 10 most innovative companies in Africa.
These companies have managed to make a difference in the technology arena as well as improve the lives of Africans.
This is how the list made by the Fast Company looks like:
iHub – holds the first positions for connecting, amplifying, and accelerating Africa’s tech community. Owned by Erik Hersman, the magazine says that iHub (The not-for-profit) is a hybrid coworking space and university commons. They have launched 150 companies which are working to find tech-solutions to African problems in a period of three years.
Sanergy – this company is working on bringing sanitation insanity in order. Right now more than 12000 people living in Kenya’s slums are now receiving daily portable toilets containing toilet paper, sawdust, soap, and water thanks to Sanergy’s sustainability model. In addition, local residents purchase and manage the sanitation facilities, allowing them to become micro-entrepreneurs. The waste is collected and transported to a management center where it’s treated according to the governmental standards and turned into fertilizer for use by East African farmers who can’t afford the otherwise high prices.
One Acre Fund – specifically for nurturing a new generation of farmers in Africa by providing farmers with seed and fertilizer on credit, delivers the materials nearby for pickup, trains the farmers to use them, and helps them sell the harvests. One Acre Fund estimates it will represent Africa’s largest network of small farms in just a few years. Since launching in Kenya in 2006, One Acre Fund has expanded to Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, reaching more than 180,000 farmers and aiming to hit 200,000 by the end of 2014.
Rocket internet – This venture firm has launched more than 100 companies in Africa since its founding in 2007. Among its efforts: online food delivery with FoodPanda, real estate with Lamundi, hotel booking with Javogo, and Amazon-like shopping with Jumia—which is the most popular online shopping site on the continent.
Konga – This is an online shopping site which has launched Marketplace, electronics to clothing to home appliances and beyond with more than 200,000 products on offer. And the sellers include merchants from small Nigerian villages as well as large, international companies. The magazine says that, through focusing on buyer and seller protection, Konga is betting that as Nigerians continue to embrace broadband, they will also turn to e-commerce platforms like its Marketplace.
Sterio.me – an e-learning platform that has so far given service to 75 schools in Nigeria. The service uses SMS messages that give students access to material and lessons they listen to outside the classroom. The lessons are pre-recorded by the educators and sent as a free voice call when triggered by a specific SMS code. Educators can be immediately notified of which students finished the lessons and how they performed, saving them grading time and helping them prepare for the next class session.
UpEnergy – this company is improving lives in making cooking bearable in rural Uganda. The company is distributing channels that benefit both large business (through carbon credits) and local retailers (through direct sales support and guidance) to make available safer, greener, and more efficient cook-stoves, water purification technologies, and solar lights.
Daptio – with adaptive learning in mind, this company is shaking the arena by finding a model that allows students to receive the right content at the right time, ultimately leading to higher understanding and better grades. With Africa seen as the next frontier for online learning’s expansion–growth of the mobile learning market in Africa over the next five years is 39 percent and expected to make e-learning a $530 million market by 2017.
PrepClass – An online portal for students preparing for standardized tests in Nigeria such as the JAMB, WAEC, GCE, or NECO. Students pay to take practice tests that prepare them for an online or paper test and receive personalized feedback to improve for test day. PrepClass has partnered with more than 1,000 cybercafes across Nigeria to give students places with the necessary resources to use the platform.
Aweza – this company is looking into breaking language barriers in South Africa. Its app allows users to translate words and phrases for others all in a slick little package. By crowdsourcing translations to weed out inaccuracies, the company aims to leverage the growing mobile arena and encourage cultures to interact across their defined lines.
Interswitch Transnational’s Verve and QuickTeller solutions have won the Retail Payments and Product & Services Innovation categories at the 2014 ACI Excellence Awards.
Held by ACI Wordwide, the fifth annual Excellence Awards celebrate leading financial institutions, processors and retailers, for their innovative and transformative uses of ACI solutions to solve real-world customer and business issues.
According to Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Interswitch Transnational Holdings,“We are delighted by this recognition from the judging panel of the ACI Excellence Awards. Verve is the leading payment card in Nigeria, beating off established international payment rivals, such as MasterCard and Visa, and is increasingly accepted across Africa and around the world. This award recognizes Verve as an industry-leading international payment product.
“We are equally proud that QuickTeller is this year’s winner of the Product & Services Innovation Excellence Award. QuickTeller provides thousands of customers with access to essential services and we are delighted that the ACI panel has chosen to acknowledge its success in this way.”
Verve and QuickTeller and the winners across ten categories were selected by a judging panel composed of ACI experts and leading global payments analysts from Aite Group, CEB TowerGroup and Celent, and are based across the Americas, the Asia Pacific region, and EMEA. There were over thirty submissions across ten categories.
In a statement, Dan Frate, Group President, Strategic Products & Global Markets, ACI Worldwide said, “The record number of Excellence Awards submissions we received this year truly exemplifies the rapidly-evolving global payments industry, and on behalf of everyone at ACI, I want to extend congratulations to this year’s winners and finalists. They are achieving tremendous success for their organizations and countless benefits for their customers. All of these organizations epitomize innovation and great work—from advancements in online and mobile banking to fraud prevention to significant improvements in end-user experience and much more, we’re proud to call them our customers and look forward to their continued success.”
Interswitch is one of only two organizations to receive more than one award. Interswitch’s Verve card, Nigeria’s leading payment card, has received the Retail Payments Excellence Award, in recognition of the way it has changed the electronic payment landscape in Nigeria. The panel noted that, ‘prior to the emergence of electronic payments in Nigeria, transactions were carried out primarily through cash, posing significant financial challenges to businesses and individuals’, something which Verve has helped to alleviate, allowing Nigerians to pay their bills, transfer funds and pay for goods and services at any time, from any channel.
QuickTeller, Interswitch’s Value Added Service platform, which provides customers with access to vital services such as phone top-up, bill payment, cash withdrawal, funds transfer and cashback through ATMs, POS, the web, mobile phones and kiosks, has been recognized with the Product & Services Innovation Excellence Award. The panel especially praised the way in which QuickTeller has enabled streamlined bill pay for customers and bill payers.
The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) has today signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Mozambican government. This makes Mozambique the first SADC country to join A4AI, and the third developing country to sign an MOU with the Alliance, joining Nigeria and Ghana.
The signing will mean that A4AI and stakeholders across Mozambique will work closely together to drive down the cost of Internet access through policy and regulatory reform.
Launched in late 2013, A4AI has already grown to become a coalition of more than 50 private sector, public sector, and civil society organizations who have come together to advance the shared aim of affordable access to both mobile and fixed-line Internet in developing countries.
The Alliance’s primary focus is to reach the UN Broadband Commission Broadband Target of entry-level broadband services priced at less than 5 percent of average monthly income. A4AI has a dedicated focus on policy and regulatory tools to drive change. Members include Google, Omidyar Network, UK DFID and USAID.
Pedro Augusto Ingles, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications said: “The signature of this MOU represents yet another step that the Ministry of Transport and Communications is taking in order to ensure affordable Internet for the entire population. We hope that this partnership with the Alliance for Affordable Internet, World Wide Web Foundation and SIITRI will spark deep collaboration between private sector, public sector and civil society actors to drive down the cost of broadband for Mozambicans.”
Sonia Jorge, Executive Director of A4AI said:“We are delighted to welcome Mozambique as a formal member of A4AI. Latest figures from the ITU suggest that a fixed-line broadband connection costs around one and a half times the average monthly salary for a Mozambican, whilst a basic mobile broadband package costs between 40 percent and 66 percnet of monthly income. We are confident that by working closely with the government, private companies and civil society organisations, we can help to drive prices downwards and unlock the immense social and economic benefits of the Internet for ordinary Mozambicans.”
Prof. Dr. Eng. Venancio Simao Massingue, Founder of SIITRI and former Minister of Science and Technology, Mozambique, said: “Today, the priority is to make sure that Mozambique finishes the last mile and ensures affordable access to the internet for all. Partners and friends such as A4AI are vital.”
According to a new report published by NCC, Airtel Nigeria has signed up 26, 194, 336.00 compared to Glo’s 24, 490, 650.00 and Etisalat’s and 18,119,397.00 making Airtel just second to MTN with over 57, 183, 745 subscribers.
The statistics from Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the market regulator, show a continued growth trajectory placing Airtel as the second largest telecommunications services provider in terms of customers. This means that Airtel has now leapfrogged Glo to second largest network by customer numbers.
Congratulating the team, Christian de Faria, Airtel Africa CEO, said: “This is a remarkable feat for Airtel, demonstrating that our investments, aimed at ensuring a superior experience for our customers in Nigeria, are bearing fruit. It is also a clear indication of the trust that a growing sector of the population have started to have in us.”
He added: “This achievement has not come easy and I must congratulate the Airtel team in Nigeria. Nigeria continues to be a very competitive telecoms market and our intention is to ensure that we continue to innovate and make life easier for our customers.”
The findings by NCC have corroborated independent research from Credit Suisse, a global financial-services group, which in July last year showed that Airtel’s market share has improved markedly in Nigeria growing by 21.3 percent, in the ten months leading to April 2013. Importantly, Credit Suisse noted that Airtel has the advantage of growing its market share using the existing, unutilized capacity on its network.”
Airtel Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Segun Ogunsanya, said: “The recent report from the NCC is a glowing testimony to our collective commitment of delivering value to our customers and also becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians in line with our corporate vision. We are extremely pleased that Nigerians are expressing confidence in our network and we will continue to excite and delight them with innovative and affordable mobile telecommunications solution.
“For us at Airtel Nigeria, this is, indeed, the beginning of a new journey to reclaiming market leadership in the highly competitive telecoms landscape and we are totally committed to our quest of offering the best network experience as well as bespoke value offerings,” he said.
Since the launch in 2010, Airtel has invested over $1.7bn dollars to expand network capacity and deepen quality in Nigeria, in a bid to achieve world-class service quality. The company’s launch of its market-leading 3.75G service in March 2012 and the subsequent roll-out, has offered unparalleled, high-speed mobile Internet, across the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.
Samsung has upgraded its ChatON OTT messaging service as it now features recalling sent messages and large sharing up to 1 GB.
This is how it works, the upgraded ChatON v.3.5 will allow the user to recall messages they have sent to a friend in 1:1 chat rooms, even if the receiver has already read them. The sender will simply tap and hold the message bubble and select ‘Recall’ to make the message disappear.
Another new feature in the updated ChatON is a feature that lets people share their real-time location with their buddies for a specified period of time through the integration with the Glympse application.
The messaging service will also feature an increased capacity for group chats, increasing the upper limit from 200 to 1,001 persons, allowing people to organize events and publicize activities much more broadly.
Another thing is that users will be able to manage their ChatON and SMS/MMS messages from the same sender in one chat room. This opt-in feature allows users to access both types of messages at the same time for a more seamless message experience even in unstable network environment.
Version 3.5 has also brought enhanced translation features with the addition of Arabic, Turkish, Farsi and Hindi, bringing the total number of languages supported by ChatON to 14.
Jaehyun Park, Senior Vice President of Media Solution Center, Samsung Electronics stated “ChatON will offer more differentiated messaging features to improve user convenience and focus on supplying various content to enhance global competitiveness.”
ChatON supports a range of mobile operating systems including Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, as well as other feature phones and via a PC.
The global leader of satellite service provider and telecommunication group, Intelsat South Africa has announced that it has made an agreement to provide Vodacom a broadband service.
This will enable Vodacom to provide differentiated broadband service which will target the small office/home office (SOHO) and small/medium enterprise (SME) users across sub-Saharan Africa.
In order to support that growth of SMEs a consistent broadband connectivity will be needed to help ensure that their businesses thrive in an already complex and competitive landscape.
“Our agreement with Intelsat will enable Vodacom to provide our SME and enterprise customers with high quality, reliable, secure and cost-effective connectivity,” stated Vuyani Jarana, Chief Officer of Vodacom Business.
The agreement states that Intelsat will provide Ku-band satellite broadband capacity to Vodacom on Intelsat 28 at 32.8ºE and deliver a fully integrated and managed solution, powered by Hughes broadband satellite technology. The solution will enable Vodacom to manage its service platform and determine the service levels while maintaining direct engagement with their SOHO and SME customer base.
When the Intelsat 33e satellite enters service, scheduled for 2016, Vodacom will be able to seamlessly access a high performance overlay that will provide additional quantity for its busiest regions.
The Intelsat EpicNG open architecture and flexible broadband platform will enable Vodacom to leverage its existing infrastructure and enhance Vodacom’s Satellite Connect (VSC) product line. This will result in the delivery of more reliable, secure and cost efficient broadband connectivity to the SOHO/SME market across sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania and the DRC.
Grant Marais, Intelsat’s Regional Vice President, Africa, stated, “We worked closely with Vodacom to address their future business demands, providing capacity through traditional wide and high-throughput satellite spot beams to locations where our customers need it most. It also reinforces our ability to work with our customers such as Vodacom to anticipate their emerging business demands and tailor our broadband solutions to best fit their business needs and economic model. We look forward to working closely with Vodacom and Hughes to bring the next generation of satellite broadband solutions to the African SME market.”
South Africans will be having their elections on 7th May this year; Mail & Guardian felt the need to keep the South African voting public informed in the run-up to the 2014 national elections. The company has launched a new free smartphone app which they call, ‘SA Votes’.
The app is a curated and constantly updated source for quality news articles, opinion pieces, videos and slideshows about the election.
Editor-in-chief Chris Roper said: “As a digital first media company, we are pleased to add this new app to our diverse stable of digital products. We believe that part of our role in South African society is to educate and inform the public. We hope voters will use the app to arm themselves with the knowledge they need to vote responsibly in the upcoming national elections.”
‘SA Votes’ allows also allows users to access data and general information surrounding the elections and to comment on and share content. It is compatible with iOS (iPhone) and Android devices.
To download ‘SA Votes’ one can go to Google Play or the Apple App Store or go to http://mg.co.za/savotes.
Nokia has introduced three new Lumia smartphones which will run on Windows 8.1 and has a series of exclusive Nokia features.
The roll out of this smartphones is set on beginning this june and what more is that those who have Lumia phones with Windows 8 will experience an updated to windows 8.1 via Lumia Cyan.
Windows Phone 8.1 introduces more details at-a-glance through Live Tiles, one easy swipe to important notifications with Action Center, faster ways to connect and type with Word Flow and, starting in the USA, a personal and proactive virtual assistant called Cortana. In addition, the Windows Phone 8.1 enterprise pack means existing Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices will become better business phones.
The Lumia 930 is the latest flagship smartphone from Nokia, and comes with a 20 megapixel camera, a 5-inch display screen and a 2.2Ghz quad-core Snapdragon processor and is expected to roll out globally in June starting with Europe, Asia, Middle East and India. It will cost $600 before taxes and subsidies.
The Nokia Lumia 630 and Nokia Lumia 635 all come with a Snapdragon quad core processor of unspecified speed and 4.5-inch display screen. It is expected begin sale in May, beginning with Asia, India/Middle East, South America and Europe, and will cost $159 for the single-sim and $169 for the dual-sim, well that is if taxes do not subsides.
The Lumia 635 is expected to be broadly available, including in the US starting in this summer, from US$189 before taxes and subsidies.
Rolled out in 2007, Safaricom didn’t mean a mobile money platform. Infact, the leading mobile subscriber didn’t think of it as a money making business it is today. M-pesa has over the years gained ground in its country of origin and the larger East Africa.
Individuals have acquired the service as the easiest way of banking unlike the earlier depended bank institutions. With the use of M-pesa today, there is not a need for a bank account for millions of people with the service. Banks have also embraced M-Pesa for easy access of currency for its customers. Businesses today use the platform to receive payments for services they offer not forgetting the public transport industry that has of late restricted the facility as the only medium of payment.
With over 78,856 M-Pesa agents in Kenya, citizens only need to check into an agent to send money across borders lately having Europes Romania join the chain of transactions. Among others are Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and India. Diaspora has also gained access to send money to the country through the Mobile service.
Salary in most coorprates paid their employees through cheques that took long to mature but has today been replaced by M-Pesa with easy transactions and fast payments. About 43% of Kenya’s $US 40 billion gross domestic product flows through the system and unlike Bitcoin which over the years has overshadowed the real e-finance revolution, M-Pesa is far ahead the fashionable digital currency in transaction number.
M-Pesa is advantageous to countries in which Vodafone has launched it considering the mobile facility uses local flat money which the operator keeps in banks and has picked up customers in countries that have the largest unbanked populations.
By only the use of a personal handset, the service allows transactions to and from the banked and the unbanked individuals leaving banks for savings which the platform still has and large transactions.
Climate Innovation Centre (CIC) has set off operations in Ethiopia and is expected to deploy and develop climate friendly technologies.
The move by the clean technology revolution aims at driving solutions to climate change through the provision of financial support and mentorship to local climate change entrepreneurs specialized in energy efficiency, biofuels, renewable energy and agribusiness.
Having Infodev a global innovation program by World Bank, spearhead the project, Ethiopia CIC was established in December 2013 and launched with the support of a $5million grant agreement between World Bank and the Addis-Ababa University.
Ethiopia CIC is expected to support over 200 technologically driven climate ventures with the provision of about 12,000 jobs in the next ten years. It is also expected to help over 3 million Ethiopians adapt to climate change, boost access to energy for 265,000 people and increase agricultural practices for 120,000 farmers.
The project will over the years be launched in other parts of the world so as to encourage a pro-active participation of countries in the ongoing global clean technology to reduce harmful emissions.
Easy Taxi, a Smart Phone application that lets users request taxis with one click has began recruiting drivers in Kenya and is set to start operations in the next week or two to help solve Kenya’s traffic problems.
The Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows phone application helps users request a taxi, get the driver’s details, which are sent to the users via the app and then also allows a user to track the driver on a map, so they can know exactly where he or she is at all times. Easy Taxi launched in Nigeria at the end of July 2013 where it has signed up over 400 drivers already.
“Tallis Gomes founded Easy Taxi in Brazil in 2011. His main motive for starting Easy Taxi was the inefficiency of the taxi transportation he experienced in Rio De Jainero during a startup event,” Bankole Cardoso Easy Taxi CEO Nigeria told TechMoran. “After the event he waited for a taxi for over 1 hour and the idea came to him.”
After Easy Taxi picking up in Brazil and lauching in other markets withe the help of Rocket Internet, Cardoso quit his PWC and The Carlyle Group in New York City to come home and launch Easy Taxi along the same principles. In July 2013, Easy Taxi began operations in Nigeria.
Bankole Cardoso, Easy Taxi, Nigeria
“I believe that we can create efficiencies in the Nigerian transportation network by brining business innovation to the urban transportation challenges we face in many cities in the country,” Cardoso says, adding that he was more interested in starting his own business than continuing in consulting or finance.
To him the opportunity to build and run an impactful business like Easy Taxi in Nigeria was far more appealing to than a professional career. All he wanted was to change the world and the app had the power to change the Nigerian transportation landscape.
Easy Taxi is not complicated.
It uses GPS technology to link users to the closest drivers around them. Each driver is equipped with an Android phone that allows them to see the customer requests around them and the driver then decides whether or not to accept.
For instance, if you are in Victoria Island, the app will link you to a driver that is nearby rather than those further away in Ikeja or Mushin. Easy Taxi drivers are also well trained and safe; the firm checks their licenses and taxi park registration details. Furthermore, Cardoso says they have a relationship with every driver in their network and make sure they meet Easy Taxi’s rigorous selection criteria before they sign them up to their platform.
And if you were thinking Easy Taxi is too early for Nigeria, Cardoso says Nigeria has already proven that it is ready for Easy Taxi. The app has been downloaded over 50,000 downloads and its increasing number of users are recommending it to their friends.
However, Easy Taxi’s reception wasn’t easy.
“There was definitely a big learning curve for drivers and even for some customers as to how to operate an app like this because it was a brand new concept,” says Cardoso. “But Nigerians are beginning to understand the convenience and added safety we are providing. I can confidently say that we have broken ground and Nigerians have been receptive to Easy Taxi.”
And even as Uber finalizes its plans to launch in Kenya in the second quarter, Easy Taxi welcomes it.
“Uber will provide stiff competition but it will only force us to continue innovating and hopefully to provide an even better service for our users,” he says. “There is a clear difference between Easy Taxi and Uber because Uber is a luxury service whereas Easy Taxi is trying to create efficiencies in the already existing taxi network in Nigeria.”
Easy Taxi’s power is in its long-term aim to make taxis more affordable for all Nigerians and to build a more vibrant taxi culture. And because it is a global company with a footprint in over 30 countries, they have met numerous competitors in all of their markets and they co-exist.
Apart from Uber, Tranzit is its local competitor back home in Nigeria and several others are springing up. Easy Taxi says it is unique in the sense that they are an on-demand car service bringing customers a driver within 10 minutes whereas their competitors are more of an advance taxi-booking platform.
IMAGE:DailyBeast
For luck’s sake, local taxi associations do not see them as a threat in any way as they are using an existing network of taxis, controlled by the taxi associations who are benefiting from Easy Taxi and not competing. Easy Taxi is making their jobs much easier and is bringing them as much as 50% more business so they have many reasons to like it.
Traffic jams are a big problem in Lagos and there is not much one can do to avoid them because the infrastructure is not up to par. The main problem in Lagos is that there are too many cars on the road. Cardoso says using Easy Taxi’s technology they hope to foster a real taxi culture in Lagos like that in other mega cities in the world so as to make taxis more affordable to cause people to use their cars less frequently to free up roads. Uber passengers have at times complained of driver harassment, Easy Taxi says it makes sure that every single one of its drivers understands that customer service is the most important thing.
“I sympathize with Uber because it is incredibly difficult to control a person that spends 8 hours of their day on the road. We realize that our drivers have a difficult job so we do our best to give them reasons to be happy. Fortunately the drivers have bought into our project and there have been no incidents so far,” says Cardoso.
In Lagos, Easy Taxi has a network of around 400 drivers and has launched in Abuja and it’s continuing to grow and expand to other cities in Nigeria and signing up more drivers into its network. Cardoso says the firm has expanded to Ghana, Cairo, Nairobi where it is set begin operations in a week or two.
Text to Change, in collaboration with Akvo, recently received a grant from Grand Challenges Canada to use mobile technology to bring clean water to remote communities in Uganda.
According to the firms, Akvo’s Flow will be used to map water sources while Text to Change’s Vusion platform will be used to create a feedback network between water users, hand pump mechanics and the District Water Office to make sure the water sources are functional and that their is constant provision of clean water to the communities.
The project uses low-cost, ready existent mobile technology to improve the management of access to water for underserved communities in the country and also helps create dialogue to engage people on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) issues in their communities. The communities use mobile phones, Twitter, Facebook and traditional media such as radio and television spots, posters and flyers to up engagement.
According to UNICEF (2013), 768 million people do not have access to safe, clean drinking water, and 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation. Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, kills and sickens thousands of children every day, and leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities.
In March, the teams visited Kwegegwa, Kamwenge and Bundibudgyo districts in Western Uganda to discuss the project with the Water Officers and Chief Administrative Officers. They also talked to chairpersons of the Hand Pump Mechanic Associations and Water Artisan Associations.
According to Neema Iyer, Programme Coordinator Uganda, “We will return to these districts in a few weeks to train them on the use of smart phones and Akvo’s FLOW tool, and to sensitize the communities to use SMS to report on functionality as well as obtain more information on WASH through SMS quizzes, skits, radio performances and print media.”
Founded in 2007 by Bas Hoefman and Hajo van Beijma Text to Change uses mobile technology as a driving force for effective communication and positive change. The organization develops customized mobile phone-based solutions to enable its partners such as USAID and UNICEF to interact with people in emerging countries for free, get receivers opinions and collect valuable data.
Established in 2011 to end the dependency on Kerosene lamps and fuel in Kenya, M-KOPA Solar, an innovative asset financing company that sells solar home systems to off grid households, on an affordable 12-month mobile money payment plan via Safaricom’s M-PESA, has announced that it has hit over 60,000 users countrywide in a move to power offgrid homes in Kenya.
The firm announced , “M-KOPA Solar surpasses 60,000 sales – which means about 1% of off-grid homes in Kenya now enjoy better, cheaper lighting and charging. Of these customers over 10,000 have already fully paid for their systems, meaning they enjoy kerosene-free, cost-free power ongoing. That’s no April Fools joke!”
Based in Nairobi Kenya since 2010, M-KOPA Solar provides affordable solar-powered lighting and mobile charging to rural Kenyans on a pay-as-you-go basis, with payment via M-PESA. The firm is also working on other products using the same patent-pending technology are in pilot.
Founded by the founders and former executives of Kenya’s popular M-PESA mobile money service, M-KOPA Solar works with Safaricom and solar lighting company d.light, and other experts to power rural homes in Kenya. In February,M-KOPA Solar raised $ 20 million (Ksh 1.72billion) in debt financing and grants to scale up its sales and operations in East Africa and expand into other markets, do R&D and business intelligence and also expand its user base which was then 50,000.
The firm aims at signing up over one million homes before 2018.
Speaking at that time, Mr. Jesse Moore, Co-Founder and Managing Director, M-KOPA Solar said, “The M-KOPA Solar model makes world class solar systems affordable for low income consumers – most of whom live below the poverty line. It’s a model that is also proving attractive to investors. At the heart of our business is our patented technology platform that combines embedded GSM with mobile payments to revolutionise asset financing.
“We know Kenyans spend over $ 1 million (Ksh 86 billion) a year on kerosene. We also know Kenyans would prefer brighter, healthier and safer alternatives. We’ve developed our technology and business model precisely to meet that consumer need.”
It appears that Google Plus has its good side; of course, one cannot match Google Plus with Facebook for either number of users or intensity of usage, but g+ offers marketers the opportunity to build deeper social relationships than you might think more than Twitter.
According to Forrester data, Google Plus has nearly the same number of users as Twitter, with both sites being visited at least monthly by 22 percent of US online adults (compared with Facebook’s 72 percent).
It will be okay to say that Google Plus is more popular than both Pinterest and Instagram. It is also a tight race when it comes to followers on Google Plus versus Twitter.
In February, Forrester studied the social profiles of 50 leading companies on seven social networks and found that these brands, on average, have collected 90 percent as many Google Plus followers as Twitter followers.
What’s more, these followers engage much more regularly with Google Plus posts compared with Twitter posts, with nearly twice the engagement rate.
“Considering Google Plus’ benefits, it’s surprising that more than one-third of large brands don’t use the site,” writes Forrester vice-president and principal analyst Nate Elliott in new research.
Charges filed in Zimbabwean courts that accused Huawei of fraudulently winning a $200 million contract from Zimbabwe’s state owned NetOne has been dropped.
One Zimbabwean born businessman who is now in South Africa, Tafadzwa Muguti, said that he had wanted to bid for part of the contract, and alleged that it was awarded to Huawei without the usual checks or a public tender.
The case was discharged earlier this year, according to South Africa’s local media, but reasons as to why the case was dropped is not clearly indicated.
NetOne’s expansion project had been put on hold pending the outcome of the legal fight.
NetOne managing director, Reward Kangai, has confirmed the withdrawal of the court case, which he said would permit the final signing of the upgrade contract with Huawei.
The upgrade is being financed by a loan from the Chinese state linked bank, China Exim Bank.
The contract was originally awarded in July 2012 and was for 2,000 base stations with LTE upgrade capability.
The digital divide in South Africa will slowly be a thing of the past because of the Digital Village at Cosmo City which Samsung Electronics built. Now, the electronics manufacturing company has officially handed it over to provide the community with much-needed education and health services.
George Ferreira, VP and COO, Samsung Electronics Africa, said: “The United Nations says being online is now seen as fundamental to human development, and access to the Internet may soon become a basic human right, like access to water. Our challenge was to look at what was needed versus what was available and devise a plan that connected the two.”
The Samsung Digital Village model addresses one of Africa’s largest economic challenges electrification. On average, less than 25 percent of rural areas on the continent benefit from electricity, resulting in isolated communities with limited access to education, healthcare and connectivity.
In this Digital Village we have;
A Solar Powered Internet School – the exclusively solar-powered, mobile and completely independent classroom aims to increase accessibility to education and connectivity across Africa. Built in a 12-metre-long shipping container, the school’s solar panels provide enough energy to power the classroom’s equipment. The school can accommodate up to 24 learners and has applications beyond traditional schooling.
A Solar Power Generator – the generator provides easy, affordable power accessibility to schools and community centres across Africa.
A Solar Powered Health Centre – the health centre provides a variety of screening and treatments to the community. A ‘Mother and Child’ centre will specifically provide medical services to mothers and their babies.
A Solar Powered Tele-Medical Centre – through the Tele-Medical Centre, the community has access to remote medical assistance through a centralised pool of medical expertise and experience.
A Solar Powered Admin Centre –used as an administration office by staff members.
Sung Yong Hong, President and CEO of Samsung Africa said: “We believe that this can most effectively be achieved if we connect our corporate citizenship initiatives with our history and core business.”
Samsung signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gauteng Department of Economic Development (DED), which is committed to exploring and investing in green technologies for green economies.
“The Digital Village aligns with government’s vision of finding alternative solutions to African problems, and we are proud to be a part of it,” says Albert Chanee, head of the DED.
Samsung and the department were inspired by the work of the Fodisong Community and Health Centre, a non-governmental organisation that has provided healthcare services to the Itsoseng community since 2010. The partnership will see the expansion of health and educational services within the community.
“We are immensely grateful for this Digital Village, which will further our efforts and ensure more people receive access to life-saving medical treatment,” said Hans Ludolph, Founder and Leading Member of Fodisong.
Samsung also partnered with Right to Care, a non-profit organization that supports and delivers prevention, care and treatment services. It will specifically provide male circumcision as a preventative health measure.
ICS Financial Systems Limited (ICSFS), the global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions, have expanded their services to Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
This new deal was awarded to ICSFS by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), which is one of the largest banks in Africa that has acquired Fina Bank, to be renamed and rebranded as a subsidiary of GTBank.
GTBank has been a client of ICSFS since 1998 and is using ICS BANKS® in Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, United Kingdom, Ivory Coast, Liberia and now in its new subsidiaries; Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
Adekunle Sonola, East Africa group managing director at GTBank said: “As we look to expand our business and services across East Africa, we have recognized that exponential growth will only be possible by adopting advanced technological solutions. We are accustomed to the strengths of ICS BANKS® solutions through our long experience as a customer with ICSFS.”
Robert Hazboun, managing director at ICSFS said: “ICSFS is committed to drive innovation, and we are keen to deliver excellent customer service through highly motivated teams and innovative banking technology. The new acquired subsidiaries of GTBank will benefit from our systems and its flexibility and productivity, which will reflect on the subsidiaries’ workflow to continuously improve the functionality and technical performance.”
ICS BANKS® provides a complete suite of banking business modules with functionality and features, addressing business needs and automating accounting processes, as needed, to improve a bank’s business performance.
ICS BANKS® has always been a pioneer in utilizing the latest technology to serve financial institutions. In addition to its embedded Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA), the system is deployed in a multi-tiered setup that runs on a web thin client, J2EE environment.
A report released by Cisco dubbed ‘Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report’ that says Businesses in Africa face unprecedented levels of cyber-attacks, as global security vulnerabilities and threats against systems, applications, and personal networks have reached their highest-ever recorded level.
In the rapidly evolving world of security threats, total global threat alerts increased 14 percent year-on-year from 2012 to 2013. Around the world, a sample of 30 of the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies generated visitor traffic to websites that host malware, with global energy, oil, and gas sector seeing a sharp rise in malware attacks.
“Organisations across the Middle East and Africa must realise that it is no longer if they will be targeted by cyber-attacks, but rather when,” says Sabrina Dar, Cisco General Manager. “Chief Information Security Officers face growing pressure to protect terabytes of data on an increasingly porous network, manage information safely especially on the cloud, and evaluate the risks of working with third-party vendors for specialised solutions – all in the wake of shrinking budgets and leaner IT teams.”
The Middle East and Africa region is relocating strong adoption of smart devices, set to grow from 133 million in 2013 to 598 million in 2018, and cloud computing, set to post the world’s-strongest cloud traffic growth rate from 17 exabytes in 2012 to 157 exabytes in 2017, according to Cisco.
It’s not all that bad as it seems because the also says that the increasing mobility is rapidly enhancing daily lives and businesses, it is however driving more complex security threats and solutions. As a result, cybercriminals are increasingly attacking Internet infrastructure rather than individual computers or devices.
The Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report also flagged up a host of troublesome trends, including Android mobile devices bearing the brunt of 99 percent of all mobile malware, Java being the most frequently exploited programming language, and Multipurpose Trojans counting as the most frequently encountered Web-delivered malware.
The report indicates a shortage of more than 1 million security professionals across the globe in 2014, as most organisations do not have the people or systems to continuously monitor extended networks or detect infiltrations, and then apply protections, in a timely and effective manner.
Cisco and its company Sourcefire have fully integrated the Advanced Malware Protection solution into Cisco’s Content Security Portfolio of products, including Web, Email Security Appliances, and Cloud Web Security Service, to protect the more than 60 million enterprise and commercial users who use Content Security solutions.
Advanced Malware Protection’s effectiveness draws from integrating Cisco and Sourcefire cloud security intelligence networks, in order to detect and protect against cyber-attacks. The solution also evolves to provide continuous monitoring and analysis across the extended network before, during, and after an attack, along with retrospective remediation of advanced threats.
By combining Sourcefire’s deep knowledge of advanced threats and analytics expertise with Cisco’s industry leading Email and Web Security solutions, customers benefit from unmatched visibility and control, combined with a cost-effective, seamless approach to addressing advanced malware problems.
“In order to restore trust in people, institutions, and technologies, our Advanced Malware Protection solution empowers defenders with real-time knowledge about expanding attack surfaces, and provides our customers with the best advanced malware protection – from the cloud to network to endpoint,” concluded Dar.
Naspers/MIH Africa is reportedly planning to close down its African classifieds operations to allow the giant media group to focus on e-tail sites and grow its portfolio in other developed markets.
If confirmed, Naspers /MIH Africa will leave a huge gap in Africa’s classifieds market where it plays a huge role with its numerous sites.
After receiving news last week that MIH Africa CEO Bill Paladino had left the firm, TechMoran send both Naspers and Bill an email to confirm the development.
Today in an email interview Bill Paladino former MIH Africa CEO confirmed his departure from the firm and did not give further details about his departure or the future of MIH Africa.
Paladino told TechMoran, “As I am no longer with MIH/Naspers Africa, I cannot answer these questions. As for my future, I am still sorting it out. Not much to report on that front.”
Our sources indicate that Naspers is set to shut down its MIH Africa operations and absorb and run Konga in Nigeria and Kalahari in South Africa- firms which are totally focused on e-commerce. Naspers will therefore exit from classifieds in Africa after tough experiments with Dealfish and Mocality.
The sources add that the new Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk is not a strong believer in early stage sub Saharan African markets and Naspers is set to focus on its global classifieds businesses in more mature markets where monetisation and profits are a more attractive opportunity.
According to Global Classifieds Intelligence group, AIM Group, Paladino was the CEO of e-commerce in Africa at Naspers subsidiary MIH Internet Africa since January 2012 and was responsible for South Africa’s Kalahari.com, Nigeria’s Konga.com and OLX and the recently closed SA-focused e-commerce start-ups Sacamera, 5rooms, Kinderelo and Style36.
His departure also raises questions on the future of OLX.
Our sources allege that OLX has been given one more year to prove itself in Africa, but in the total absence of any business model other than pay per click the firm will hardly succeed given Africa’s immature pay per click market with even Google turning away its focus from continent but only pushing last mile connectivity.
Naspers/MIH Africa’s classified’s exit will give One Africa Media a market leading position in Africa with its Cheki Africa, Jobberman in West Africa, BrghterMonday in East Africa and PrivateProperty and SafariNow. Most of these One Africa Media companies have monetised, some have broken even, and are focused on operational execution.
Ringier and Schibsted, also working at a similar model with their PigiaMe in Kenya and Kiramu in Nigeria and Schibsted’s Tradestable plus top forums such as Nairaland will take on OLX. Naspers/MIH Africa exit from the African classified’s market will give them chance to double down on e-commerce, and the media giant is already hiring massively for its Africa e-commerce operations to plant Konga or Kalahari style sites across the continent. Though given one year to proof itself, OLX largely coming out of Argentina, might still be around as most of its major decisions are not made in South Africa, but it’s so possible to see OLX Africa firing massively in the coming months as it tries out new business models to help itself monetise.
OLX’s challenge is mostly an African problem as OLX Argentina makes $25m revenue from CPC and display advertising.
In Africa, however, there is low internet penetration and low CPC rates, maybe even ten times lower, making the African market too early for CPC. Africa also has few spenders on CPC making the digital advertising marketplace so infant and the curse making OLX Africa’s business model highly unsustainable. Then forget fraud and competition from private curated Facebook marketplaces such as Nairobi Expat Marketplace, Kilimani Mums, ArushaRusha and hundreds of others where people buy from people they know.
Then other players like Locanto and Craiglist with zero operational budgets in Africa are also here to stay.
Naspers CEO of pay-TV segment, Eben Greyling has also stepped down after more than 18 years working with the firm.
UPDATE: An insider source claims the MIH subsidiary will be closed but the classifieds businesses might stay put. TechMoran is still waiting for response from Naspers on the matter and will update soon. For those with more info you can leave an anonymous comment or drop us a line at info@my.techmoran.com
Launched November last year, UK based money transfer service Transferbee has introduced free of charge transfers from UK to Nigeria in a move to enable Nigerians living in UK to send money to their family and friends as the Easter season approaches.
Transferbee has slashed its 4.5 pounds charge per transaction to nil charges until May 1st.
According to Titas Bledis, CEO of Transferbee, “After our initial launch we continued to build the product and offered the best conditions in the market to send money from UK to Nigeria. In order to invite even more people to try out our service, we are offering free transfers for all April period.”
Transferbee also signed a partnership with Stanbic IBTC in Nigeria and from now on all Stanbic IBTC mobile money wallet owners can receive money using Transferbee. Even if the receiver does not have a mobile money wallet, the wallet will be automatically created.
The way the service works is that money will be sent directly to the mobile phone in Nigeria using a growing mobile money ecosystem in the country. The transfers are done in just 24 hours and the receiver can redeem the money in 1000s of cash-out points without the need to visit the bank.
With over 21 million residents, Lagos is the most populous city in Africa and Africa’s fastest growing entrepreneurial society with less hype and cut-throat competition.
However, it’s traffic jams are also so terrifying and probably the most horrible in the world too.
Oya.com.ng, a bus ticketing company launched last year by Obinna Ogbodo and Nnazilim Egbuonu with backup from investor Chika Nwobi, founder of Mtech and CEO of L5lab, aims to bring back sanity to Nigerian roads.
Oya wants to make travel by bus easier and fun across Nigeria by helping travelers pre-book and buy bus tickets before the day of travel. Users can call them to reserve a seat of their choice or alternatively visit their website and pick any seat of their choice and from the transport company of their choice. By doing so Oya aims to curb the stress and hassle road users encounter when buying bus tickets, and the nuisance constituted by touts at the respective terminals cannot be over emphasized.
www.artandeducation.net
“There are a few other companies that are into our line of business, we don’t compete so we wont refer to them as competitors as the sky is big enough for all birds to fly,” said Obinna Ogbodo and Nnazilim egbuonu to TechMoran in an email interview.
“In two years we see the company being a household name, and yes, we will spread across other African countries when our aims are fully achieved in Nigeria,’ they added.
The site works simply. A user visits the website and puts where they are and where they are going and when. The startup automatically finds buses plying the requested route, the user picks a bus of their choice from among the listed, the traveller enters their dettails and choses their payment options and then they send him an mTicket to their phone numbers.
On the day of travel, a user just presents the mTicket to them and then they’ll issue them a ticket they can use to board a bus of their choice. Users can also call the firm directly to make their reservations.
The founders say they have several payment options on their website so users choose the one most comfortable for them .
“The ideal payment option would be to pay online but the challenge is that most people are scared of online transactions. We have the alternative of reserving a seat and then paying cash at the terminal on the day of travel,” the founders say.
However the founders say the entrepreneurial journey is not as easy as it looks but those looking to start tech business need to be patient, embrace hardwork and work smart to soar.
Kenya’s Fidelity Banks’ has announced an aggressive expansion plan that will see the bank launch five new retail outlets in various parts of the country this year. This announcement comes on the back of impressive 2013 results which have seen profits before tax shoot up by 211 percent.
In its latest published statement of accounts, Fidelity Bank saw its profits rise from Ksh.102.44 million ($1,184,965) in 2012 to Ksh.317.88 million ($3,677,045) in 2013. Its total assets grew by 8.4 percent from Ksh11.77 billion($136,148,298) to Ksh.12.78 billion ($147,831,372) during the year under review.
The Bank’s Executive Director Sultan Khimji, said the bank’s new branches will still be targeting the small and medium scale (SME) sectors and in growing urban centres of Nakuru, Meru and Eldoret. The bank will also increase its footprint in Nairobi by opening up new branches at the New Sameer Industrial Park and Highridge area.
“Nakuru, Meru and Eldoret are some of the fastest growing urban centres in Kenya both in terms of population and the number of SMEs that are coming up such as supermarkets, retail traders and secondary processors of the huge agricultural produce from the surrounding regions. This natural attraction is further enhanced by their new status as seats of county governments,” he said.
He quipped: “We are obviously very happy with our performance this year. We hooked our growth wagons on the SME train which as you are aware is the engine of growth for the country and we have not been disappointed. These small and medium sized companies are here to stay especially after they have gone through the teething problems of starting up. They need working capital to finance their growth plans, buy raw materials and pay staff and that is where we come in to offer them services they would rarely get with the bigger banks.”
Last year, the bank opened its newest branch in Kilimani area along Lenana Road. It also announced the establishment of a new ultra-modern coast regional office in Mombasa town to take care of the unique business opportunities in the such as travel and hospitality, transportation and warehousing.
Launched in Kenya by Vodafone’s Safaricom in 2007, M-Pesa has gone live in Romania, the first country in Europe to power mobile money transfer and payment services.
According to Vodafone Director of Mobile Money Michael Joseph (who was then Safaricom’s CEO), “The majority of people in Romania have at least one mobile device, but more than one third of the population do not have access to conventional banking. Vodafone M-Pesa is already used regularly by nearly 17 million customers and we look forward to bringing the significant benefits of the service to the people of Romania.”
M-Pesa is expected to offer simple, safe and secure mobile money transfer and payment services to approximately seven million Romanians who transact mainly in cash while banked customers will also get the convenience of being able to access and transfer money via the mobile phone.
The SMS-based money transfer and payments service can be activated at around 300 Vodafone Romania stores and participating retail outlets and via agents serving approximately six million people in both rural and urban areas. Over 2000 M-Pesa retail distribution points are expected by end of 2014.
M-Pesa also will allow Vodafone Romania’s customers to top up pre-pay airtime on a mobile device, pay utility bills, make a deposit and withdraw cash from participating agents, and purchase goods such as flowers, a newspaper and a coffee. Romanian M-Pesa customers will be able to transfer as little as one new Romanian leu (0.22 euro cents) up to 30,000 lei (€6,715) per day.
M-Pesa in Kenya has gone ahead to power M-Kopa, a credit solar power solution, M-Shwari-a middle and low income savings and borrowing scheme and Linda Jamii, an ObamaCare like health insurance service.
Sony has launched an e-Book reader, which the company syas that it is theworld’s thinnest and lightest.
This device has specially been handcrafted for corporate users. The e-Book reader has 13.3 inch screen and has an estimated retail price of $1,100.
The Digital Paper device retains the context of an entire page by displaying text and graphics that are nearly identical to printed documents or full-size notepads. The device’s touch panel enables users to operate the menu or turn pages by simply touching the screen. Using the included stylus, professionals can write directly on the panel, and also highlight and erase text.
“This is a true replacement for the vast amounts of paper that continue to clutter many offices and institutions,” said Bob Nell, director, Digital Paper Solutions of Sony Electronics. “It is very easy to use and optimized for reading and annotating contracts, white papers, scholarly articles and legislation. The ‘notepad’ feature will have universal appeal, and notes can be shared with clients, colleagues, and co-workers. Digital Paper offers a simple, intuitive experience and gives professionals portability and flexibility coupled with the ability to wirelessly access document management solutions and other content repositories.”
Sony is showcasing Digital Paper at this week’s American Bar Association Tech Show in Chicago along with Worldox, which serves more than 5,500 law firms, financial institutions, and other enterprises.
Sony is also developing additional markets for Digital Paper in collaboration with leading companies serving several key markets, which will be announced in the coming months.
In addition to PDF source files, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files can be converted to the PDF format and saved, viewed and annotated on the Digital Paper device. For retrieval and transfer, Sony’s Digital Paper incorporates Wi-Fi as well as USB connectivity.
Digital Paper is planned to be available in May, initially through a select group of Worldox agents
Ghanaians will now be living large with Nokia’s 6 inches smartphones as the company has launched the Lumia 1520 and 1320 in their market.
To compliment the launch of both devices, Nokia has kicked off the storyteller competition which would allow people share inspirational stories of friendship and get the opportunity to win an all expense paid trip to London.
With a 6 inch 1080p Full HD screen, the Lumia 1520 has an enhanced start screen featuring an additional 3rd column of live tiles allowing people to get to their favorite apps faster with less scrolling. The phone also has a 20MP Pure View camera with optical image stabilization, oversampling technology and zooming capabilities which can easily capture and edit high quality pictures and tell better stories.
Olumide Balogun, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, Nokia West and Central Africa noted that the introduction of the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320 will revolutionize the smart phone market and boost Nokia’s competition edge in the phablet category.
He said both devices are designed with the latest Lumia Black software which is an update of the windows 8 operating system.
Both devices comes pre-installed with business and productivity applications and unique new photography application called the storyteller app which allows people tell stories of places they’ve visited using pictures.
The Storyteller App seamlessly merges two lumia signature experiences, PureView Imaging and HERE maps, to allow users relive their photos in a new, dynamic and interactive way he added
“ This would feature a night of eat, shoot, repeat to drive home how the Nokia Lumia 1520 and its more affordable cousin Nokia Lumia 1320 can enrich consumers communications experience. We want to use this opportunity to announce the launch and availability of our new flagship products,” Balogun said.
Nigeria’s money transfer and payments service, Paga which allows users to send and receive cash, pay bills, power merchants and buy airtime over mobile phones and web is celebrating five years with over 1.3 million users and over 7 million transactions and 80 Naira billion in to date.
“In 5 years, we have come far but only because you – our customers, agents, business partners and investors, were brave enough to take this journey with us. We thank you for your support and we are excited to celebrate this milestone with all of you. We hope as the journey continues you will remain our faithful companions as we work tirelessly to be the number 1 way to pay, get paid and make your life better,” the firm said.
Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows phone application helps users request a taxi, get the driver’s details, which are sent to the users via the app and then also allows a user to track the driver on a map, so they can know exactly where he or she is at all times. 
