Wetin be love sef? Trip to Bahamas? Dinner in bed with Iyanya/Yvonne Nelson or a Tecno Phantom A3??

Woo-hoo! The love bug is in the air, it’s that time of the year again, the book of February 14 is about to be opened! Yesss, Valentine’s Day is almost here AGAIN!

Now is the time to spice up your love story. You just have to make it Memorable! What’s your plan for your loved ones? Or Are you a learner?? Are you still thinking???!!

Relax! In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Nigeria’s Largest Online Mall,Konga.com are opening their Valentines store with plenty of special treats for everyone.

From sweet daily timed deals to discount codes to help you enjoy amazing discounts to E-Gift vouchers your loved ones can use to pick gifts for themselves to amazing competitions to guarantee special surprises for you and your loved ones, Konga certainly knows how to show love. With the numerous discounts, giveaways…Valentine’s Day this year is definitely going to be special! No hassles! The perfect gift for your Val is just a click away.

 @Shopkonga on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter will come alive this valentine’s period with daily cash and gifts giveaway for friends and lovers in a special “Wetin be love” questions and answers competition with the hashtag #Wetinbelove.

All our website readers will get a special discount by using the codeà AFKONGA.

Trust me, you DO not want to miss these deals. Hurry now, login to Konga.com and start your shopping. That is http://www.konga.com/valentines_day

Do it right this Valentine with Konga!

Tunisian I watch, an anti-corruption watchdog has unveiled Jomaa Meter,  an initiative aimed at exposing the performance of the newly appointed government of Mehdi.

This initiative has made 29 assurances which are made by Jomaa, which includes things like organizing free and fair elections, issuing a complementary budget law, guaranteeing the neutrality of public administration, and job creation.

Mehdi Jomaa’s government took office last week, after its approval by the National Constituent Assembly. It came to replace the Ennahdha-led government of Ali Laarayedh, and it will lead the country until new elections expected to occur this year.

Jomaa listed the economy, the security situation, elections, and the appointment of neutral and competent local governors among the priorities of his government.

The initiative was warmly welcomed by  Tunisians on various social media sites.

Kenya will be the host of the African Institute Remittance (AIR), a decision made by the African Union (AU) Executive Council.

The AIR Project was launched with funding from the European Commission while the World Bank was responsible for overall implementation and execution of the project, in collaboration with the African Development Bank and the International Organization for Migration.

The Council asked the African Union Commission to conclude the Host Agreement with the Republic of Kenya so as to ensure the formal take-off of the Institute this year. It also asked the World Bank and other development partners to support the Institute. The Institute is scheduled to be fully operational by 2015.

“I am delighted that the Executive Council has decided that the Republic of Kenya will host the AIR. The establishment of AIR, the first of its kind in the world, is a cornerstone in harnessing Diaspora resources for social and economic development in Africa”, said Dr. Mustapha S. Kaloko, Commissioner of Social Affairs of the African Union Commission.

The decision to select Kenya was determined in the 24^th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council which met 7 to 28 January 2014 at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Kenya was one of the member countries that showed interest in hosting the AIR secretariat.

The dotAfrica domain is expected to begin September this year; this comes after the expiry of the Sunrise and Rush periods which were to begin in May 2014.

Neil Dundas, ZA Central Registry (ZACR) Chief Operating Officer, said:  “dotAfrica (.africa) domains will be available for registration on a first-come-first-served basis from September 2014 once the rights of trade mark holders have been processed during the designated Sunrise period.”

Dundas explained that the Registry has received a formal invitation from ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers) to commence contracting in its capacity as the selected dotAfrica registry operator who has successfully completed initial evaluation.

“There are two items that have delayed the conclusion of contracting, namely the provision of a Continuing Operating Instrument (COI) according to ICANN’s revised criteria and the fact that our company name has changed from UniForum SA to the ZA Central Registry,” said Lucky Masilela ZACR’s new CEO.

He added that South Africa’s foreign exchange controls have presented challenges in terms of getting the contract process underway.

In addition, the issue of the name change has initiated a contract change request and this process is currently under review by ICANN. Other than the mandatory 30-day application comment period, the ZACR does not anticipate that this will lead to anyfurther delays in the contracting process.

In the context of the above, the ZACR is confident that it will be in a position to execute the Registry Agreement (RA) during the course of March 2014. This will then enable the organization to complete Pre-Delegation Testing (PDT) and the submission and approval of its launch program. “All things being equal we anticipate that we will be able to commence our Sunrise process in either April or May this year,” said Mr Dundas.

Upon receiving the final go-ahead from ICANN, the ZACR will commence the dotAfrica launch process by running both Sunrise and Land Rush applications in parallel for a period of 90-days.

The priority ranking system will allocate domain name applications, submitted during the 90-day application window, in order of highest priority to lowest priority. Domain name applications based on trademarks registered in Africa will receive the highest priority, followed by trademarks registered in other jurisdictions. Applications that are not based on any validated priority right, such as generic Land Rush applications, will receive the lowest priority.

Emerging Markets Payments (EMP), a leading pan-African and Middle Eastern payments firm has appointed Murat Ozulku as CEO of its Bank Processing Division, replacing Hoda Shoukry who has retired after an illustrious career.

Murat has had a stellar career at Citibank covering two decades and has worked in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in a variety of senior roles.  Most recently, while based in Nairobi, Murat led Citi’s Transactional Banking business across East Africa, providing products and services to Financial Institution, Corporate and Public Sector clients.  He has extensive experience of building and operating payments platforms and a deep familiarity with the wider region.”

As CEO EMP, Murat will be responsible for all of EMP’s Bank Processing operations which include payments platforms in Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria, as well as sales and service operations in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and UAE.

Paul Edwards, Executive Chairman of EMP, stated “EMP is delighted to welcome Murat Ozulku as the new CEO of Bank Processing.”

He also paid  tribute to Hoda Shoukry, who is retiring as CEO of EMP’s Bank Processing Division, having been with the company since its inception, first as a Director and then as the Chief Executive.

“Hoda led the business as it grew rapidly and established its reputation for world-class payments services to banks across Africa and the Middle East. Her fierce determination and passion for the business helped overcome many challenges over the years. She will be greatly missed by staff and clients alike”, said Edwards.

EMP has a Processing Division for  outsourced payments solutions such as card procurement and personalisation and card hosting through to ATM and POS driving, mobile payments and advisory services to 130 banks in 35 countries.  The Group hosts over 11 million accounts and processes more than 100 million transactions per annum.

According to the firm, the  barriers of EMV migration are technology, time and cost. To take away these barriers EMP will be offering the Kenyan Banks an extremely attractive proposal to migrate and process for any interested Bank on the very lastest technology. The proposal includes free migration from Magnetic Stripe Cards to EMV Chip, and if the bank is ready a commitment to meet the EMV deadline. EMP has 130 banks across africa and has signed 2 banks in Kenya now. Murat will help drive its uptake in Kenya.

“I am very excited to be joining EMP and look forward to building on the excellent platform that Hoda Shoukry has developed. The Middle East and Africa region has the youngest age profile in the world and is becoming increasingly tech savvy. There is huge demand for access to financial services. Growth in the payments sector will be sustained at very high rates for at least the next 5 to 10 years and I am determined that EMP will remain the leading, the most dynamic and the most trusted payments processor and solutions provider in the region”, said Murat Ozulku.

Mass roll out of the smart ID cards in South Africa officially stated in the weekend last. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA)is still inviting first-time applicants and pensioners to apply at 28 offices across SA.

As preciously stated, the deployment for senior citizens will go according to the birth month, with the DHA set to cater for those born in January and February first.

Naledi Pandor, the home affairs minister, 100 000 smart ID cards are expected to be issued by the end of March and applicants can expect a paperless process using biometric technology to record card details.

“The rollout of the smart ID cards to all eligible South Africans will take a few years and the department, accordingly, makes an appeal for the public to exercise patience,” said the minister

Green ID books – which Pandor said have “been open to fraud and abuse” – will be phased out as more citizens are invited to apply for the new cards in the coming months.

The following offices have been earmarked for the roll-out process:

Due to their massive processes and procedures, the travel/ tourism and hospitality industries have been at the forefront of the adoption and application of ICT. The sector’s operations needs technology to make a meaningful difference in the lives of consumers. It is a mega-trend that local managed ICT service provider, Integr8, has been quick to recognise and leverage off.

Given that tourism and hospitality are high-growth areas of commerce and contribute substantially to the economy, they represent a natural and logical target for technology manufacturers, service providers and suppliers.

Reports suggest that the South African tourism sector is well on its way in achieving its goal of becoming one of the top twenty destinations in the world. South African President Jacob Zuma announced a 10.2% growth in international tourist visitors to the Country in 2012.
The Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, has been quoted as saying, “With the recent launch of our Nothing’s More Fun than a Short Left campaign, we anticipate positive domestic tourist growth ratings as South Africans hit the road and explore the country.”

Stakeholders have witnessed how businesses from tourism agencies to hotels to car rental companies have eagerly sought to invest in mobility, social networking and automated, converged frontline service systems to remain competitive.

 Major operators like Club Travel, a member of the Thebe Tourism Group, the Ambassador Hotel Group and Amadeus Southern Africa, have all invested in infrastructure upgrades and convergence on systems to maintain dominant positions in the market.

“From my side it is all about staff having the best tools to operate at the best speeds with no downtime. Managing your IT service provider to deliver on these and then accept responsibility and hence penalties when they don’t deliver. Without these speeds and uptime our business is affected which means our income,” explains Gary Mulder, Financial Director, Club Travel.

 “Process efficiency is critical. Our clients expect it in their businesses and we need to prove that through efficiencies we can reduce our costs and hence charges to them. We must embrace systems to reduce the reliance on paper generation where we can and streamline internal processes from bookings right through to back office invoicing and audit processes,” he adds.

 Being the preferred ICT services provider to these high profile clients has helped to raise Integr8’s general profile in this competitive space.

The company’s joint CEO, Lance Fanaroff, suggests that part of the reason why technology continues to have such a profound impact on these industries is because of the immediate value derived by consumer.

“Like ICT, tourism and hospitality is dependent on the buy-in of consumers. Technology is constantly being used to deliver services to the consumer, to make the user experience exceptional – from having reliable wireless connectivity in hotel rooms right through to mobile apps and digital applications to enhance travel situations,” says Fanaroff.

According to Fanaroff, operators in these industries are compelled to adapt and adopt technology for the sake of client service. “Otherwise, it is simply a matter of time before they become obsolete.”

Renewed and continuous global interest in this rapidly developing sector is at least one reason for service providers to remain ahead of market developments and technology uptake Fanaroff adds.

As an example, he refers to an online article 52 Places to Go in 2014,, published by the New York Times, which ranks Cape Town as the number one destination on the list.

Bunmi Adetoyinbo

In a move to increase its Business One Cloud solution implementations for Small and Medium Business Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria, SAP Africa has signed a private cloud licensing agreement with Oryx Computer Systems, a multiple award-winning SAP AG partner.

The agreement allows Oryx Computer Systems to offer managed cloud-based SAP services in the West African market at an affordable price point.

Since its inception in 2005, Oryx has distinguished itself as the largest SAP Business Management solutions and services company for SMEs across the region, using SAP solutions to drive businesses to seamless business process integration and increased productivity.

Speaking on the partnership, Managing Director, Oryx Computer Systems, Tayo Adegbola explained that “the licensing agreement is a natural extension of the company’s on-going positive relationship with SAP to meet its SME customers’ requirements for fixed-cost, scalable industry-specific solutions.

“With more than 300 000 thriving SMEs in Nigeria and the global trend for subscription-based cloud services accelerating, we are able to capitalise on this untapped market,” Adegbola said.

Adegbola stated that with the International Finance Reporting Standard (IFRS) coming into effect in Nigeria in 2014 which aims to strengthen accounting transparency of company financial statements, Oryx will have the opportunity to work hand-in-glove customers to meet country-specific compliance and regulatory payroll needs.

Managing Director, SAP West Africa, Richard Edet, noted that Nigeria has always been a strategic market for SAP solutions, while adding that with reliable Internet connectivity reaching critical mass in West Africa, SME cloud-based services are becoming a reliable and affordable alternative to on-premise solutions.

According to him, with dynamic partners like Oryx, SAP Business One Cloud will provide small businesses or subsidiaries of large companies with a dynamic software solution to manage all critical business processes in a cloud-based offering without the need for additional infrastructure and at a fixed cost.

He revealed that “Oryx is a multiple award winning SAP AG partner in Nigeria and with a solid track-record for implementing and supporting SAP solutions.”

There is an age long debate about how prayer should be with different denominations following different styles of prayer.

In this video on Vine, Temi Turner shows the classic difference between an “American” prayer and a “Nigerian” prayer

Really classic and funny stuff

Watch the video and share with friends

Bunmi Adetoyinbo

Nigeria’s dream of achieving food sufficiency in 2015 will be a mirage, unless the country adopts biotechnology in its agricultural sector, says agricultural experts.

Participants at the 10^th anniversary of Africa Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF) seminar made this observation recently in Abuja.

AATF urged Mr. President to sign into law, the bio-safety bill currently before him, saying that this would open up a new vista for massive production of food for local consumption and export, irrespective of other reforms going on in the sector.

The new law is expected to usher in a new era in the deployment of biotechnology to boost food production, ensure food security and reduce the high incidence of food importation.

Agricultural biotechnology is the application of technology to agriculture to make, modify or improve on a product for the benefit of mankind.

AATF explained that it chose the most expedient way to agricultural development in Africa by embracing and investing in proprietary technology acquisition, development, adaptation and adoption for use by the resource-poor farmers of Africa.

According to the Foundation, African farmers have over the years faced many challenges in their attempts to increase productivity; pre- and post-harvest crop losses due to pests, diseases, weeds and droughts have resulted in low yields, as well as risks and fluctuations in incomes and food availability.

“Improved agricultural technologies were the key to agricultural development in many of the worlds developed economies of today and remain the key to development of the agricultural sectors in Africa,” says AATF.

Microsoft, Computers For Schools Kenya and iFixit have today kicked off the training of 20 youth artisans in device repair at the Pan African Christian University in Nairobi.

The training will give training on the repair and assembly of devices, which is managed by Computer for Schools in Kenya who will develop partnerships in order to provide similar trainings to hundreds of young people across the country.

“Working with the community, we realized that they did not have the know-how to repair the devices, and so we approached Microsoft. We want them to have the expertise to repair the devices when they break down. Also, the coming in of government laptops will bring in a big challenge of repair. We are happy that the iFixit team is also providing repair tools which are also not available to the community,” said Nicholus Nzou, Executive Director, Computers For School Kenya.

iFixit will be bringing in their skills and expertise as an industry leader when it comes to repair and assembly of smart devices. The firm regularly disassembles devices to develop repair toolkits, providing information on the manufacturing cost of the device, and how repairable and environmentally friendly devices are.

The objective of the initiative is to extend the life of devices through management of e-waste and also provide income to young people as part of Microsoft Youth Spark programme, whose aim is to provide skills and opportunities for youth.

Djam Bakhshandegi, Corporate Social Investment Manager for Sub Sahara Africa said: “We have seen lots of growth and demand of smart devices in Kenya including Windows Phone smartphones. Microsoft has identified the need to support our customers by ensuring that there is enough technical expertise, from device manufacturers and vendors to technicians on the ground. For a while, Kenyans have struggled to find reliable and trustworthy technicians.”

The training is expected to have a nationwide impact with 13 of the 20 artisans being drawn from outside Nairobi. The Repair Business Toolkit and Build Your Business Curriculum training that the technicians will receive will help them in building sustainable businesses and is also expected to lead to additional job opportunities in the counties.

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Bunmi Adetoyinbo

To ease the stress of acquiring documents for property bought in Lagos State, the state government has introduced a new electronic certificate of occupancy (e-C of O) to 55 property owners in the state.

The objective of the e- C of O is to increase public/investor confidence by instilling integrity in the C of Os issued by the state government.

At a brief ceremony held in Ikeja during the weekend to kick start the process, Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola presented the documents to the property owners.

Fashola explained that the migration from the paper title to electronic C of O was a response to the problem of counterfeiting.

According to him, the illegal printing of the “Yellow Paper” has affected the reliability of the C of O as a legal title to property in the state.

“This new electronic document is more secure as it is designed to eliminate cloning and issuance of documents that are not genuine. Those issued with this e-C of O can be sure they have bought land rather than law suits. The new document guarantees safety of properties,” he said.

Fashola assured that the government would ensure speedy issuance of the new document to clear the backlog of applications.

He disclosed that holders of the “Yellow paper” would soon be required to turn in their old document to obtain the electronic one.

Speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, said the issuance was faster and that applicants who fulfill all necessary conditions will get their document within 45 days.

Before now, the processing of C of Os in Lagos State has been made cumbersome by bureaucratic bottlenecks that unnecessarily delay the issuance of the document. There have also been cases of multiple C-of-Os being issued to different parties on the same piece of land. This has led to consuming litigations, while some people have perfected the art of cloning or illegally duplicating genuine C of Os with a view to perpetrating fraudulent transactions.