UBA (UBA Kenya) bank in partnership with Airtel Kenya have launched a mobile banking product, Akiba Mkononi, which aims to encourage low income earners to save money.

Akiba Mkononi allows subscribers to open and manage accounts from a mobile phone and earn interest. The interest rate will be two percentage points off the prevailing Treasury Bill rate. The current Treasury Bill rate is 9 percent, meaning the savings will earn 7 percent, computed quarterly

“If a person subscribes to Akiba Mkononi, they start to make money because the interest rate is priced off the returns on Treasury Bills,” said UBA Kenya chief executive Tunji Adeniyi.

The minimum an individual can hold in the account is Ksh100 with daily deposits ranging between Ksh50 to Ksh140,000.

One can also service insurance premium payments through the account which can be accessed from 98 Post Bank branches in Kenya as well as UBA Bank counters.

The service is more like Safaricom’s MShwari only that with Akiba Mkononi one cannot borrow money.

UBA Kenya board chairman Ngugi Kiuna said:“Financial inclusion does not only mean access to credit. We need to provide platforms that our customers can use to build savings and earn money from them instead of borrowing loans.”

However, the bank hinted at creating a borrowing functionality once Akiba Mkononi is integrated to other products like the prepaid card.

UBA is also seeking to take the product to 18 African countries where the partners have a presence and is looking to partner with other mobile service providers.

Twitter has transformed the world with its 140 character messages but with great impact. The micro-blogging platform,has become  a place users can learn something new as well as say what they want, that’s the reason why everyone should celebrate Twitter’s 8^th birthday with pomp and color.

Millions of prolific tweeters have made Twitter an exciting, fun and powerful place to connect with others. But each of you had to start somewhere: Today, the firm has launched a tool to help us remember our first Tweets — first Tweets that sparked a conversation, used imagery to tell a story, or revealed unfiltered self-expression.

Its not restricted anyone can do this, celebrate your #FirstTweet, too. Using this Tweeter tool, you can look back to find your very first Tweet — or for that matter, anyone else’s. Just type in your @username, or that of anyone — your best pal, favorite comedian, a star or a president.

Celebrate first Tweets together by using the hashtag #FirstTweet.

-Source Twitter blog

The start of sales of the new Nokia X in the Kenyan market is expected to provide local Android developers additional revenue opportunity because Nokia is calling out to all local developers to embrace the new opportunities by publishing their existing apps to the Nokia store.

The company has already tested more than 100,000 Android apps and approximately 75 percent are directly compatible and ready to be published to the Nokia Store. For the 25 percent that require change, Nokia will be providing a plugin package for the Android SDK, including the services APIs and the Nokia X emulator.

According to Nokia’s Developer Relations lead in East Africa, Moses Sitati, the company is keen to provide local developers with additional platforms to promote their apps thus Nokia X offers an additional channel to market and as a new revenue opportunity.

“Nokia’s market leadership and brand strength in the fast-growing smartphone and mobile app market provides the launchpad for developer’s success. With Nokia X, developers can reach an untapped pool of savvy and app hungry smartphone users in Kenya and around the world,” continues Sitati.

He noted that publishing existing Android apps for Nokia will not only enable the developers to access new market for their existing apps but also provide their existing apps with monetization mechanisms for emerging markets.

“If your app uses Google services for maps, push notifications or in-app payments, you will need to replace these APIs with Nokia-specific APIs, which have been built to work almost identically to those they replace. Nokia services have been designed to minimize porting effort for apps using corresponding Google services, and to allow developers develop and distribute a single APK targeting both ecosystems,” he said.

Kenya seems to be the most attractive country when it comes to innovations, well this is according to Royal Philips. The electronics company has announced the establishment of its Africa Innovation Hub in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Philips Africa Innovation Hub will work both on the creation of new inventions, as well as bringing these inventions to the market.

The Hub will do application-focused scientific and user studies to address key challenges like improving access to lighting and affordable healthcare as well as developing innovations to meet the aspirational needs of the rising middle class in Africa.

The Philips Africa Innovation Hub will be located at the Philips East African Headquarters in Nairobi, and will work in close collaboration with the R&D ecosystem of Kenya and Africa.

“We welcome the establishment of Philips’ Innovation Hub in Kenya; Philips is a globally recognized innovation powerhouse and their selection of Nairobi as the site to establish their African Innovation hub is a testament to the Kenyan government’s commitment to nurture the drive for research and innovation in the region”, said Adan Mohammed, Cabinet Secretary for Industrialization and Enterprise Development.

JJ van Dongen, Senior Vice President & CEO Philips Africa states: “Our ambition is to create impactful innovations that matter to people and address the key challenges that confront society. With Kenya as a leader in the continent in science and entrepreneurship as well as a hub of collaboration on technology and innovation, Nairobi, is the ideal location to establish Philips’ African research presence. We want to tap into the city’s vibrant R&D eco-system and contribute to the process of co-creating new solutions, new business models and meaningful partnerships to provide innovations that make an impact.”

Some innovations that Philips was already working include:

• Respiratory rate monitor to support pneumonia diagnosis: a robust and affordable Automated Respiratory Rate Monitor that aims to support the diagnosis of pneumonia among infants and children.
• Community care services: The development and testing of a work-flow innovation designed to reduce the number of avoidable maternal and child deaths.
• Smokeless cook stove: a stove that uses wood  and can reduce smoke and carbon monoxide emissions by more than 90 percent compared to an open fire.
• Consumer solar solutions e.g. solar lamps

The Philips Africa Innovation Hub while headquartered in Kenya, will be responsible for pan-African research and projects and will have operations across Africa, linked to the Philips regional offices across the continent; the hub will be headed by Dr. Maarten van Herpen and will work in close collaboration with the Philips research labs in Bangalore, Shanghai and Eindhoven.

In a move that will see AccessKenya Group become East Africa’s top managed security service provider, the Dimension Data-owned firm has partnered with Security Risks Solution Limited and Internet Solutions Kenya Limited to introduce Security as a Service solution for  its high-risk ICT clients in East Africa.

According to the firm, the Managed Security Services (MSS) solution can be deployed within 7 days after an audit to clients with highly vulnerable environments in sectors such as banking, insurance and government revenue centers.

Loren Bosch, the Head of Managed Services at AccessKenya and Internet Solutions said the new solution is able to capture real-time logs and alerts of manipulation of electronic files and any attempts to circumvent IT controls.

“We are introducing MSS as a single vendor solution with access to modules such as automated monitoring, Visibility, control and oversight, Cost savings, Reduced risk of obsolescence, flexibility and Security compliance. By deploying MSS, hosted on the AccessKenya and Internet Solution cloud, an organization will be able to free up critical human and financial resources”, he said.

The firm said the move is attributed to the personnel skills shortage coupled by the high Capex requirement for developing a fully secure inhouse environment.  The firm said in 2013 over 71 percent of all attacks were directed to personal and end user devices while 51 percent were targeted at server systems.

“As the bring your own device (BYOD) trend continues at the workplace, we shall continue to see information security risks being exploited both from internal and external vulnerabilities such as poorly deployed business applications and downloads”, said Jason Finlayson, Director Security Risks Solution.

Finlayson says users rarely discover they are victims until the malicious applications take over  their credentials and genuine applications.

“This means that organizations need to treat privacy as both a compliance and business risk issue to reduce regulatory sanctions and high impact security events that may lead to reputational damage and loss of customers due to privacy breaches”, he explained.

Consumer confidence in the banking industry is on the rise globally with Kenyan customers among the most confident in the continent, driven by an increase in access to financial services through alternate channels.

These are the findings of EY’s 2014 Global Consumer Banking study, winning through customer experience, which surveyed over 32,000 banking customers in 43 countries including respondents from Kenya. It shows banks are providing traditional banking services well, but need to focus on important aspects of the customer experience. Banks must earn the highest levels of trust in order to retain customers, win more business and create genuine loyalty.

African customers also express stronger advocacy for their primary financial service provider than seen globally and are more likely to recommend their primary financial service provider. Customers in Kenya (62%) are the strongest advocates, followed by South Africa (51%) and Nigeria (46%). On a global average, only four out of every ten people can recommend their bank or financial services provider to other customers.

“Customers’ experience is the main driver of trust and is also the single most common reasons that customers open and close accounts globally; but customers in Africa also place greater importance on finding ways to save money, mobile banking features, reputation and protecting their financial information,” says Steve Osei-Mensah, Advisory Leader for Financial Services in East and Central Africa.

The Kenyan banks also need to improve their efficiency when it comes to problem resolution with more than half of customers in Kenya having experienced a problem in the 12 months prior to the survey being carried out, compared to approximately one third of bank customers globally.

“According to the survey, a high percentage of Kenyan customers want banks to provide them with plans that will help them reach their financial goals and help them invest in their financial well-being. This is why a higher percentage of Kenyan bank customers (86 percent, compared to an African average of 78 percent) want access to financial experts” says Celestine Munda, Advisory Leader for East and Central Africa.

Kenyan bank customers are also in need of customized products and services to fit their needs and lower their costs.

Banks in Kenya are facing increased competition from technology companies and mobile phone providers, who are providing customers with more options in banking and cash transfer.

Kenyans have more options than ever. And they and do not view traditional banks as having significant competitive advantage over newer types of financial institutions and technology companies. Kenya is clearly a global leader when it comes to alternative ways of banking, with 21 percent of Kenyans using a mobile service provider as their primary financial services provider; compared to an African and global Average of 6 percent and 2 percent respectively.

To download the full report, view the customer segmentation infographic, watch videos discussing the survey’s findings and explore data please visit www.ey.com/globalconsumerbankingsurvey.

Enterprises worldwide are expected to spend nearly $500 billion in 2014 to deal with issues caused by malware deliberately loaded onto pirated software according to a new joint study conducted by IDC and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Global consumers are expected to spend $25 billion, including Middle East and African consumers who will pay $2 billion,  on security threats  and costly computer fixes stemming from malware on pirated software.

The study, titled “The Link Between Pirated Software and Cybersecurity Breaches,” also revealed that 60 percent of consumers surveyed say their greatest fear from infected software is the loss of data, files or personal information, followed by unauthorized Internet transactions (51 percent) and hijacking of email, social networking and bank accounts (50 percent). However, 43 percent of those same respondents do not install security updates, leaving their computers open to attack by cybercriminals.

According to the survey, governments are most worried about the loss of business trade secrets or competitive information (59 percent), unauthorized access to confidential government information (55 percent), and the impact of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure (55 percent). It is estimated that governments could lose more than $50 billion to deal with the costs associated with malware on pirated software.

The African continent accounts for only 2 percent of global GDP, yet it accounts for 10 percent of global cybercrime incidents. In Kenya, Microsoft has already partnered with the Kenya Copywrite Board to combat piracy, which according to the 2011 BSA Global Software Piracy Study, currently sits at 83 percent across the East and Southern Africa region.

The study was released today as part of Microsoft’s “Play It Safe” campaign, a global initiative to create greater awareness of the connection between malware and piracy.

The NUS forensics analysis of 203 new PCs loaded with pirated software found that 61 percent of the PCs were pre-infected with unsafe malware, including Trojans, worms, viruses, hacktools, rootkits and adware. These PCs, purchased through resellers and PC shops in 11 markets, included more than 100 discrete threats.

“It is hugely concerning that brand new PCs are coming pre-infected with dangerous malware due to pirated software, making the users and companies readily vulnerable to security breaches,” said Professor Biplab Sikdar, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore. “The university’s forensic tests clearly indicate how cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging the unsecure supply chain of piracy to spread malware and compromise PC security in a serious way. We would only recommend usage of genuine software for online safety and cybersecurity.”

Microsoft is committed to protecting its unsuspecting consumers from downloading or purchasing non genuine software that exposes victims to malware that can lead to identity theft, loss of data and system failures.

More information about the IDC study is available at the Microsoft Play It Safe website, and the Digital Crimes Unit newsroom.

Somalia will soon be enjoying the best of internet connection as Glocall Telecoms has announced that is in the process of  install a LTE network using Tazca Connects LTE as a Service in Mogadishu.

Tazca Connect’s service will be powered by a software platform from Lemko.

This is what Mobeen Bhamjee, the Glocall Telecoms CEO had to say: “Tazca Connects LTE offering, backed by Lemko Corps distributed LTE architecture, was selected due to the need for an efficient, cost effective 4G LTE solution, deployable on demand, which would enable affordable, mass broadband penetration in challenging environments.”

Tazca Connects said that the Lemko software, when combined with its pay-as-you-grow LTE models and rapid deployments, allows Tazca and its local partners to provide the lowest per-subscriber per GB MHz POP cost in any market.

The company however did nt indicate when this process will be unveiled.

Pamoja in associations with its network of solution partners and Microsoft South Africa hosted deligates to an information session on the impact of Cloud computing as a business differentiator at Microsoft, Bryanston.

Pamoja is the value-added services business entity and strategic arm leading Seacom’s entry into content aggregation and Cloud computing services.

The Company is using its rich pool of expertise and leveraging off access to Seacom’s established bandwidth connectivity to bring Cloud computing to Africa through the creation of market-related Cloud services.

Brian Herlihy, founder of SEACOM and Pamoja and current CEO of SEACOM explained the symbiotic relationship between the two companies; the Cloud requires internet capacity and SEACOM as an internet company benefits from the Cloud services distributed by Pamoja.

Albie Bester, General Manager at Pamoja, reiterated the strategic importance of the company in facilitating the transfer of business-building services, including Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service and Platforms as a Service, to the market via its reseller network.

Presentations made reference to the significance of this shift attributed to Forrester Research which forecasts that the global market for Cloud computing will grow from $40,7 billion to more than $241 billion in 2020.

Representatives from operations across several industries, including HR & payroll, Security and corporate software solution development and integration, offered details of how the Cloud has helped to add value to service delivery.

“We are very excited about drivers like the internet and consumerisation clearly, technology has evolved to the point where it has a real opportunity to stake its claim in a growing market. The role of IP and platforms will have a significant impact on overall development locally and our objective is to assist companies in extracting maximum benefit from Cloud adoption. Our focus continues to be the SME space with the intention to build this up. We believe this is an effective strategy to successfully build the Cloud market in Africa,” says Bester.

The intention going forward is to contribute meaningfully towards the establishment of an aggregated experience in order to bring Cloud to the consumer.

Ideco South Africa, the market leader in identity control, workforce management and access control based on biometric solutions, has launched EVIM (Electronic Visitor Identity Management) to the domestic market.

EVIM is an advanced mobile data terminal with an integrated fingerprint scanner used to replace the traditional visitors book.

The offering has been introduced to meet a growing need for solutions that are designed to address escalating incidents of data fraud and identity theft.

EVIM marries the advantages of a digital visitor register system with security in the cloud and integrated fingerprint biometrics.

The Managing Director at Ideco, Marius Coetzee, says there is a marked increase in demand for comprehensive identification solutions in visitor management systems, to strengthen security control practices.

The market is aware of the relevance of a visitor register in terms of the OHS Act, but also realize there is no value in the current paper-based process used at almost every entrance.

EVIM incorporates a number of key features that combine the accuracy of biometric ID-based transactions with the security of digital cloud-based processing, providing full protection of personal information in terms of the POPI Act.

The system facilitates barcode scanning for accurate data input and can perform online ID checks in under 12 seconds. It is also configurable to capture multiple data fields and records all transactions on secure cloud servers.

Only authorised users can access EVIM’s online visitors logs and all data can be sorted, filtered or grouped. In addition to the automated daily visitor reports the export function provides a CSV file to import data to any other business system.

“Business processes can be automated based on the information captured. Users can create custom fields to capture additional details specific to your organization, and business rules will then process specific events according to your requirements,” Coetzee adds.