Dr. Olumide Olusanya, CEO, Gloo.ng just told us that the online supermarket, Gloo.ng, will be relocating in 2 weeks to a newly secured 20,000sqft Customer Fulfillment Center (CFC) from its present 5,000sqft CFC.

Set to take place on 3rd to 5th January 2014, the relocation has been necessitated by the growth the firm has experienced.

Formerly known as BuyCommonThings, Gloo.ng  hit one year in October 2013 and says its on course to be the country’s biggest online supermarket. The new CFC is just another step towards its goal and shows the commitment its founders have on achieving it.

The firm was founded by Dr. Olumide Adedolapo Olusanya, who quit medicine to start Gloo.ng last year. Olusanya earlier told TechMoran that the firm would launch offline pick-up points-kind of physical stores across the country to reach many buyers with Same-Day Delivery services.

A small startup company with just two employees is set to launch the world’s first bulb that works during power outages, the team from India says the bulb will keep lights on even during power cuts to bring “Peace of mind”.

Dubbed SmartCharge, the 5W bulb will be first of its kind and is build for emerging markets where electricity power is not as constant.

“We aim to pioneer the emerging world of LED lighting with our technology, by making products in the consumer and small business lighting space providing safety and convenience. We were founded in 2012, and the 5 W SmartCharge™ LED Bulb is our first product,” the firm said in its Kickstarter campaign,expected to aid in production of their product for the mass market.

Countries in Africa have serious power outages, with the longest lasting over 8 hours on a single day, this new bulb works whether there is a power outage or not as globally we all depend on light bulbs for lights.The team will therefore replace candles, flashlights and other emergency lighting people use during power outages and avoid losing productivity or causing accidents .

31 year old Ashish J. Thakkar, is the Future Awards Young person of the year. The founder and Managing Director of Mara Group, a conglomerate he founded at the age of 15 runs IT, real estate, manufacturing companies, and more with operations in 26 countries, spanning four continents, and employing over 7,000 people worldwide.

He was recently appointed by Dell inc to its Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence Advisory board.

The Future Awards Africa, described by the World Bank as ‘The Nobel Prize for young Africans’, recognise and reward the success and achievements of young people aged between 18 and 31 living in Africa. They have been awarded in 15 separate categories, including: advocacy and activism, business, agriculture, education and fashion.

Apart from Thakkar, 14 other individuals were also named winners of ‘The Future Awards Africa’ 2013. The winners were announced at a ceremony held in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, adding the list of winners to over 120 and 1,200 nominees in Nigeria in just eight years.

Open this year to countries from around Africa, the awards so 85 young Africans from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Liberia apply to receive awards. The Awards were presented in partnership with Microsoft, the British Council, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Youth Development, the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Access Bank.

According to Chude Jideonwo, executive director of The Future Project and co-founder of The Future Awards Africa, ” This year has been the most difficult year to judge to date, with so many compelling and inspiring stories of young Africans, all of who deserve to be recognised and rewarded. The winners of this year’s Awards will go on to inspire a new generation of leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs across Africa and we’re looking forward to seeing the winners go on to touch thousands of lives across our great continent, leaving behind a legacy that will be recognised for years to come.”

The Future Awards Africa, described by the World Bank as ‘The Nobel Prize for young Africans’, recognise and reward the success and achievements of young people aged between 18 and 31 living in Africa. They have been awarded in 15 separate categories, including: advocacy and activism, business, agriculture, education and fashion.

The winners of this year’s Awards are:

1.THE FUTURE AWARDS YOUNG PERSON OF THE YEAR 

The winner is Ashish J. Thakkar, age 31 from Uganda.

He is the Managing Director of Mara Group, a conglomerate he founded at the age of 15 which includes IT, real estate, manufacturing companies, and more with operations in 26 countries, spanning four continents, and employing over 7,000 people worldwide.

2. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN ADVOCACY & ACTIVISM

This award is given to a young person who has demonstrated exceptional vision, passion, and commitment to a social or developmental cause and made a measurable impact on lives.

This year’s winner is Orode Uduaghan-Okpu, age 24 from Nigeria for her work supporting breast and cervical cancer.

3. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN COMMUNITY ACTION

This award is given to a young person who has remarkably changed the lives of a community or communities.

The winner of this year’s award is Ife Adebayo, age 30 from Nigeria.

A web developer, Adebayo raised funds to build a block of classrooms for the students at St Michael’s Anglican Primary School in Lagos after visiting the school where he saw students being taught in dilapidated buildings. The project was completed in April 2013.

4. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN NEW MEDIA

This award is given to a young person who is reaching new frontiers as an innovator, publisher, business owner, entrepreneur, or professional in new media.

The winner of this year’s award is Kingsley Ezeani, age 23 from Nigeria.

At age 18, Kingsley Ezeani founded ‘Information Nigeria’ a news portal which has become one of the most popular websites in Nigeria with 12 full-time staff, over 100 volunteers, over 500,000 Facebook fans, it is one of the 20 most visited Nigerian websites with over 10 Million monthly visitors. His passion for development led to the founding of ‘Crowd sourced Education’ a project which earned him the 2011 I.T.U fellowship, he was also a finalist in the I.T.U Young Innovators Contest in Geneva, Switzerland and one of Nigeria’s delegates to the World Business Dialogue, the largest student

Conference in the world.

5. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN JOURNALISM

This award is given to a writer, reporter, presenter, producer, and other professionals working in the journalism profession who has demonstrated excellence in the work of telling of stories and bringing the news to the public.

The winner of the award is Toyosi Ogunsey, age 29 years from Nigeria.

Ogunseye is the news editor of Sunday Punch. Recently promoted to acting editor for the Sunday Punch, she was adjudged Science Journalist of the Year (2012) at the Nigeria Academy of Science Media Award. Her report, ‘The rich also cry: A tale of deaths and diseases in a heavily polluted upscale estate’, focused on the concerns of the residents of a heavily polluted upper-middle class estate in Lagos. The second part: ‘The rich also cry: Killer metals in the blood ‘detailed the results of blood and urine tests conducted on the residents, which confirmed the presence of killer doses of metals in their bodies. This report, which was the winning entry, saved lives as well as also championed a policy change as the factory that was polluting the environment, was shut down. She also won the CNN Journalist of the Year in 2011.

6. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN BUSINESS

This award is given to an entrepreneur who has demonstrated extraordinary vision, leadership, and commitment to running a business enterprise, and recorded measurable business success in terms of growth (profit, market share, employees) and/or in terms of his or her reputation (creativity, quality, and aesthetic).

The winner is Saeed Jumah, age 28 from Nigeria.

Jumar is the CEO of The Smile Shop in Kano, a business he started in 2012 with N600,000 from his savings and investment from two friends. He has in the last 18 months months built the dentistry into a N3,000,000 annual turnover business with an over 150 clientele base and 5 staff. Saheed, who is passionate about dentistry, dedicated time every month to teaching secondary school students about the professional, and offers free dental checks for children.

7. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

This award is given to a professional or a technocrat who has made an outstanding contribution in the private sector.

The winner is Kayode Temenu, age 29 from Nigeria.

Temenu is Supply Planning Manager at Unilever Nigeria, a senior management role where he is charged with the responsibility of planning supply point of view all the company’s manufacturing plants – 3 plants (5 factories) and two business supplier manufacturing factories. Before his appointment to this position in 2013, he led a companywide savings initiative project at Unilever Central Africa called Cash and Cost Challenge which delivered a savings of just over 20 million Euros in 2010 versus a target of 16.6 million Euros, which was the biggest in Unilever Central Africa for that year, and the second biggest in among countries within Unilever North Africa, Middle East and Central Africa. When he worked at Unilever Vietnam, Temenu was the Process Development Project Lead/Process Engineer at the company’s toothpaste plant, he was the first black man to work in the plant and within a span of 6 months led the team to deliver 16 innovation toothpaste products for countries in Africa and South East Asia. He was first appointed into a senior management role in 2012 as the Plant manager, Personal Products Factory where brands like Close Up, Pepsodent, Pears product range (Lotion, Oil, Cream & Jelly) at 29; the youngest person to be on that role in Unilever Central Africa before moving to his current role. He also oversees all Unilever Nigeria exports to Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

8. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN AGRICULTURE

This award is given to an entrepreneur, advocate, or professional who has demonstrated vision, leadership, and commitment and made a measurable impact in the field of agriculture, and agro-related causes and organisations.

The winner is Precious Peter Nweke, age 31 from Nigeria.

Nweke owns Pranke Farms, a fish farming business located at Umudike-Umuajuloke, Omuma L.G.A., and Rivers State. He started the business in 2009 and in the last four years the business have grown through various innovations in Aqua-culture which includes; modern spawning techniques, use of natural growth enhancers, modern designs of fish ponds, use of enzymes for pond conditioning, salting techniques, and fish feed production techniques. Pranke Farms is known to produce high quality fish with attractive pigmentation and good taste, due to the natural enhancers used.

9. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN FASHION & STYLE

This award is given to a young person who has demonstrated measurable achievement in the field of fashion and style. This includes designers, photographers, models, stylists, make-up artistes, entrepreneurs, and business owners.

The winner is Aisha Bello, age 24 from Nigeria.

Bello shot into limelight when she won the 3rd edition of Nigeria’s Next Super Model, a talent show for runway fashion models in 2011. In 2012, she won Best Model of the World in Bulgaria. Since winning the talent hunt, she’s taken the fashion world by storm. Bello is on high demand by world designers and in the past year, she has walked the runway at the BET’s Hit the Runway (2012), Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Johannesburg, South Africa (2012), Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Cape Town, South Africa (2012), Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Malta (2013), London Fashion Week (2013), Ebonylife TV Launch (2013), and New York Couture Fashion Week (2012). Bello has also been featured on Bouygue’s Construction 2013 Calendar, Fashion TV in 2012, and she was one of Fashion TV Angels for its official launch in Nigeria in 2012. She’s surely a star to watch.

10. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN ARTS & CULTURE

This award recognizes extraordinary achievement in the promotion and the preservation of the best of our arts and culture. This includes young creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, designers, artists, filmmakers, and cartoonists.

The winner is Kenneth Gyang age 27 from Nigeria.

Kenneth Gyang is a writer and director that has been working in film and television since 2006 having graduated from the National Film Institute in Jos. Notable projects in television included working as a director for the BBC’s Wetin Dey, MTV’s MTV Meets, EbonyLife TV’s The Fattening Room and Televista’s Finding Aisha.In what has been a vintage year, he directed ‘Measuring Time’, a documentary film on healthcare in Niger state that won Best Documentary and Technical Excellence Awards at AFRICAST 2012 and also the hugely successful film ‘Karangiya’, a cross-cultural film bridging the North and South divide. Kenneth is the co-founder of Cinema Kpatakpata, a production company based primarily in Nigeria with the sole aim of producing regular stream of popular films shot within Africa generally and Nigeria in particular. To date he has directed two major feature films: the political love story ‘Blood and Henna’ (2012) which showed as part of Nigeria’s Art and Culture showcased during the 2012 London Olympics and Cinema Kpatakpata’s debut ‘Confusion Na Wa’ (2013), which received funding by the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Hubert Bals Fund and despite its relatively small budget, won Best Nigerian Film as well as declared Africa’s Best Film of the Year by the continent’s most credible jury at the 2013 Africa Movie Academy Awards.

11. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN ENTERPRISE SUPPORT

This award is given to a young person(s) who has excelled in running a business or organisation whose service or work enhances supports or provides solutions for SMEs.

The winner is Ayodeji Adewunnmi, Opeyemi Awoyemi and Olalekan Olude, ages 29, 25 and 29 from Nigeria.

The trio of Adewunmi, Awoyemi, and Olude, founded Jobberman, described by Forbes Africa as “Nigeria’s biggest job search engine and aggregator. Jobberman went live in August 2009, and today the site attracts over 50,000 unique users each day. Through simple, yet cutting-edge technology, Jobberman helps link qualified personnel to the right job opportunities. Jobberman is one of the few companies in Nigeria’s tech space that enjoy venture capital backing.” The Jobberman team was listed in Forbes’ 30 under 30 Best Young Entrepreneurs in Africa by Forbes.

12. THE FUTURE AWARDS PRIZE IN EDUCATION

This award is given to a young person who has recorded measurable impact in advancing education through advocacy, activism, innovation, enterprise, and, institution building.

The winner for this award is Ottoh Oroondam, age 26 from Nigeria.

Orondaam is a social crusader, a developmental worker, an analyst, and a social entrepreneur. He is the initiator of the Slum to School Project and Net a Child Project, which are both geared towards lending a voice and offering a platform to bring to the fore the educational, health and social needs of disadvantaged children, and providing succour for them. His Slum to School Project provided complete educational scholarships for 118 orphans and vulnerable children in Makoko community and also provided school uniforms, sandals, canvass, school bags, books and other psychosocial support. Orondaam was winner of the Lagos State Honours Award 2012 as the most outstanding corps member and is a nominee for the MDG Presidential Award.

13. The Future Prize Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year 

The winner is Uche Pedro, age 32 from Nigeria

Uche Pedro, a new media entrepreneur who founded popular Nigerian blog Bella Naija

14. The Future Awards Prize in Science & Technology

This award is given to a researcher, scientist, innovator, inventor who has distinguished herself or himself and achieved a measurable breakthrough in the field of science and technology.

The winner is Hugo Obi age 32 from Nigeria.

Obi is founder of Maliyo Games, a Nigerian-based start-up specializing in creating casual games with African themes. Maliyo Games launched in May 2012 with the goal of sharing the experiences of everyday Africans with a global audience through games with over 10 gaming titles including Okada Ride, Aboki, Kidnapped, and Mosquito Smasher. Obi and his work has been featured on BBC, CNN, CNBC Africa, and DEMO events.

15. The Future Awards Prize in Entertainment Talent

This award is given to a young person in the entertainment industry who has recorded remarkable achievement in music, acting, dance, television, and other fields of entertainment.

The winner is O.C Ukeje age 32 from Nigeria

OC Ukeje has featured in various stage plays and television dramas. He was in Niyi Ogunsanwo’s “What the Steward Saw”alongside Stella Damasus, and “The Engagement”. On television, Ukeje has featured in BBC Trust’s “Wetin Dey”, and PeaceAnyiam Osigwe’s “GRA Women”. He won best actor drama in the 2013 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards for his role in the movie, “Two Brides and a Baby” and was nominated for the 2013 Best Actor Award at the Africa Movies Academy Awards.

India’s restaurant search engine Zomato.com has launched in five new cities, in a move to fulfill its global expansion plans and make restaurant search convenient. The new cities include Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Porto Alegre in Brazil; and Hamilton, in New Zealand.

With this new launch, Zomato makes it presence felt in 12 international cities since its Series D round.

Speaking about the move in a statement, Deepinder Goyal, CEO of Zomato said – “Alongside developing a better product experience, global expansion has been a key focus area over the past year for us. The latest round of funding has given us the muscle we needed to meet our aggressive expansion goals. Both Brazil and New Zealand have been very exciting markets so far, where users and restaurant owners alike have taken to Zomato really well. We plan to further our expansion in Brazil over the next six months, and also have 22 new countries in the pipeline for the next two years, across Europe, Asia and the Americas.”

Apart from the 12 international cities, Zomato is now present in a total of 40 cities across 11 countries, on the web, and on mobile for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry platforms.

Founded in 2008 in India, Zomato has over 197,000 restaurants in 40 cities across 11 countries with full, up to date menus, photos and geocoded coordinates plus user reviews, ratings and the ability to follow other users’ recommendations on Zomato. The engine first entered the Brazil market last month with its launch in São Paulo, where it now claims 150,000 monthly visitors,  has info on 13,000 restaurants in São Paulo, 10,000 restaurants in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Salvador and Porto Alegre and several others including South Africa. Zomato plans to launch in seven more cities in Brazil by June 2014.
In New Zealand, the platform launched in July 2013 and has so listed over 360 restaurants.

According to World Health Organization, road accidents in Kenya claim between 3000 to 13,000 people annually,  making road crashes the biggest cause of deaths among Kenyans surpassing malaria,  HIV, or even TB.

And though the country has put up strict laws to reduce the menace,  it’s with little hope as drivers and the public point fingers at each other even blaming traffic police officers for corruption.

Kijicho Interactive Ltd, a company of four led by NikoHapa‘s Benard Adongo, as Project Manager, have therefore launched  Kijicho, an app that seeks to deal with inadequate policing and unchecked impunity on Kenyan roads – factors that are major contributors to the road crashes.

“By making it easy and fun to report, Kijicho hopes to significantly improve road safety,” Adongo told TechMoran. “The mobile service enables commuters to chat with each other, reach public service vehicle (PSV) operators, and traffic authorities concerned anywhere and at any time. Partner bus companies and matatu Saccos are equipped to respond and act immediately.”

According to Adongo, the free to download Android app enables passengers to rate PSVs,  communicate with the PSV operator, and  easily report life-threatening situations to the authorities.  Users can also use the chat feature to strike conversations with fellow passengers on the same bus, thus making it an engaging channel and exciting to use.

“Kijicho not only draws passengers to build a clean, courteous, safe and comfortable transport atmosphere, it also empowers everyone to participate in discourses that may ultimately save their own lives,” Adongo added.

At the moment, Kijicho PSV partners have have posters with their bus registration number inside for passengers to use to start a conversation. The PSV crew can also use the same app to respond to passengers on all their buses. Their is an SMS  version for those who have no Android-powered phones.

Registered in May 2013, the application won the 2013 British-Council run CultureShift Hackathon in Nairobi.

International money transfer company, CoinFling wants you to be Santa every Christmas by allowing you to send money to your loved ones via mobile applications, conveniently.

With transfers starting from $2.99 and 50,000 cash pickup locations, the app is available for both Android and iPhone.

CoinFling was founded by Roble Musse – CEO, with over10 years of management consulting and corporate finance experience working for Microsoft, KPMG, Toyota, Washington Mutual Bank,  Mohammad Sarhan– CTO, with over 7 years experience working with Zillow (largest online real estate co. in USA), backend & front end development, mobile, cloud and Abdi Fayoke – Head of Finance, with 8 years of financial reporting experience working for Farmers Insurance and smaller companies.

Speaking to TechMoran, Musse, who has roots in family Somalia said the startup company was launched due to frustrations he experienced when he wanted to send cash back home, he therefore sat down with friends and after hardwork, CoinFling was born.

“Our own personal frustrations with the options we had with money transfer service providers inspired us,” he said.  “With CoinFling we are seeking to offer a convenient, fast, and affordable service by leveraging technology.”

The team launched CoinFling in private beta in late August 2013 and are working towards full launch in first quarter 2014. The team says they chose the name CoinFling because it “best describes the speed and ease of using CoinFling’s app i.e. its like filking/flinging a coin, also I think it sounds pretty cool.”

However, they did not just stumble upon an idea and developed a product.

Musse says that they saw the biggest need and also there hadn’t been as much innovation in the money transfer field not only with leveraging available technology but also expanding the service offering in this sector. Apart from having cash trasnfers, CoinFling also allows one to send cash to mobile wallets like M-Pesa. The firm’s first corridor is USA to Kenya and USA to Somalia and they are working with Safaricom (M-Pesa), Airtel Money, and Gulf African Bank.

Though not as big as their traditional counterparts like Western Union and MoneyGram, Dahabshil among others, CoinFling says they are  very proud of the support they have received from the East African Community in the USA that helped them raise their initial seed funding of $300,000. The firm also currently going through a funding round it expects to close.

To use the service, one has to download the app, sign up and choose the pickup point the receiver will pick the money and then they chose whether to send cash or via a mobile wallet.

One big challenge however are the restrictive regulations for money transmitters, especially in the USA where a money transmitter is required to get licensing in each state they operate. Some of the states require minimum net asset value of $500,000 and surety bonds of up to $300,000.

Away with challenges, Musse says they are opportunistic of their full launch soon. With increasing number of smartphone users, the team began with mobile apps and are set to launch their web service early next year.

The team also want to be part of Africa’s digital revolution, where young entrepreneurs are taking to technology to solve local problems.

“I believe there is “real” innovation in Africa,” Musse told TechMoran, ” The African continent to becoming a “digital economy” faster than the west with the adoption of mobile wallet services. Also, the innovating services that are being developed to help farmers is really promising.”

Thsi morning we have learned that  Rocket Internet has sold half of its Middle East ventures  operating under the Middle East Internet Holding (MEIH) to MTN for EUR 300 million, this deal comes just days after MTN bought one-third of  Rocket Internet and Millicom International Cellular’s Africa ventures registered as Africa Internet Holding (AIH).

The EUR 300 million is the total amount MTN has used to purchase both a third of AIH and 50% of MEIH. The two expect to launch and run successful Internet ventures in the Middle East.MEIH already operates Easytaxi and Lamudi, Hellofood and Namshi in United Arab Emirates, Saudi-Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.According to Oliver Samwer, co-founder of Rocket Internet the strategic partnership between MTN and Rocket Internet is going to accelerate the online shift in the Middle East.”With joint forces, Middle East Internet Holding will develop its already existing ventures even better and will launch new companies even faster and more successfully.”

The deal brings together Rocket Internet’s expertise in developing successful global internet business models, and MTN’s leadership position and unique knowledge of the local telecom markets. MTN will invest approximately EUR300million over the next two to four years into AIH and MEIH.

“The agreement with Rocket marks yet another important milestone in our journey of pursuing digital business adjacencies as one of our key strategic priorities, to drive growth and value for our customers,” said Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN Group President and CEO.

“Through MEIH, MTN and Rocket aim to accelerate and further develop the nascent e-commerce market in the Middle East region,” added Dabengwa.

Analysits say with its money, MTN is just going into deals into will regret as Rocket Internet is after a quick exit. they add that the berlin-based incubator is looking at reducing its risks and probably invest in more ventures elsewhere or at home than in in emerging markets, however this might not be so as Rocket Internet was the first to invest in emerging markets hence influencing others to join the chariot.

Tell us what do you think of Rocket Internet and MTN’s new-found friendship in the comments section.

This years winner of the International second Vodafone-Safaricom Appstar challenge, Bernard Mukangu of Automs.gs, an SMS scheduler app for sending automatic personalized text messages on pre-scheduled dates says his girlfriend inspired him to develop the app after he forgot her birthday.

“The idea to come up with Automs.gs was born when I forgot to send my girlfriend a message to wish her a happy birthday and as a result she was very cross with me. From that day I purposed to develop an application that would ensure that I would never forget important events in the lives of those I care about both at a personal and professional level,” said Mukangu after being named the grand winner of the 2013 Appstar Challenge.

Mukangu started his career at Nairobits incubation hub in South B, where youth from informal settlements are given a chance to study mobile Apps development for free.

India’s Kunal Mahajan’s Matchbox puzzle game app was the runner up, while South Africa’s Lynette Huundermark took third place with the GoMetro commuter information app.

“The best innovators are not people who create things because they are smart. Truly innovative people are those who try to find a way of addressing current unsolved problems, unmet needs and unresolved inadequacies in the societies they live in. They understand that every problem or challenge in the society is in fact an opportunity,” said Bob Collymore, CEO Safaricom Limited.

“We came up with the Appstar Challenge because we wanted to create a platform for innovative people like you. We wanted you to show case your talents by coming up with innovative solutions through mobile application development. When I heard that we had over one thousand applicants from four countries, I was filled with hope and extraordinary optimism. I knew we are doing something right and that we are all on the right track,” said Bernard Pratapa, Vodafone’s Vice President and Head of Business Solutions for Emerging Markets.

Last year’s winners were Kenya’s Gerald Kibugi and Gilbert Ron and the third slot being taken by South African developer Rudolph Joubert.