Thursday, November 29, 2012

Kenya launches a new mobile system M-Shwari

This week saw the launch of what is likely to be a revolutionary mobile phone product called M-Shwari. It comes from two long term partners - Kenyan mobile company Safaricom, well known for it’s world famous mobile money product - MPesa, and a local bank, the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) who have been custodians of M-Pesa funds for years?

M-Shwari is a savings and loan product that is immediately accessible to the 15 million users of Safaricom’s MPesa. It gives them access to banking services – savings and loans without having to walk into a bank hall or fill out a single form. It allows them to save as little as 1 shilling (earning interest of between 2-5% a year) or borrow as little as 100 shillings (Kshs 100 is equivalent to about $1.17) and attracts no account maintenance fees or transfer fees. It will be a great product for people who run informal businesses and take money home at night in pockets or blouses, or envelopes to stuff into mattresses, as they now have a simple tool which they can use to instantly and simply save by clicking into their phone SIM menu.

Data Journalism Boosts Voter Registration in Kenya

Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) published the location of voter registration centers around the country for the first time on Monday - but they released this important information as a PDF, which is fairly large to download and really difficult for ordinary citizens to read. Even professionalinfomediaries, like media and civil society organisations who gather and organize information, would only ever use a fraction of the content of the PDF.

Our pioneering Code4Kenya initiative immediately realized that the information trapped in the PDF was just too important to ignore. So, Code4Kenya's lead developer David Lemayian and one of the initiative's Data Fellows, Simeon Oriko, got to work. First, they liberated the information, by scraping the data from the PDF into an interactive spreadsheet. Then, they built the simple GotToVote! website on top of it.

Financing Technology Entrepreneurs & SMEs in Developing Countries

In developing countries, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have considerable difficulty obtaining the necessary financial resources to effectively scale up and grow their businesses. Access to traditional growth capital, including debt and equity, is often prohibitively costly, due to such factors as insufficient legal and regulatory policies, and inadequate financial markets

Current ICT Initiatives and Projects in Kenya

Kenya, through Vision 2030 recognises ICT as a foundation for a knowledge economy. Developing affordable information and communication network infrastructure and applications is central to building the information economy. Accordingly, the Government's objective is to ensure that the country has a competitive telecommunications industry that delivers reliable and affordable services and products for the economic and social benefit of citizens. The development of ICT Parks and Digital Villages will gradually lead to low-cost provision of ICT goods and services. This is also expected to facilitate the growth and establishment of BPOs.

ICTs to empower Zimbabwe women

Women represent just over half of Zimbabwe’s population and the sustainability of our country’s development efforts hinges on women’s equal participation in the social, political and economic fabric of the nation.

After realising that women’s economic empowerment is key to achieving long term economic development and reducing poverty, the government of Zimbabwe recently launched the Broad Based Women’s Economic Empowerment Framework (BBWEE).

The framework has a number of interventions and strategic goals to enable women to participate in society, politics and economics but chief among all these aims is to improve access to technology for women.

The importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in stimulating socio-economic development is widely recognised.

Magaret Zinguze, director of E-Knowledge for Women in Southern Africa (EKOWISA), says: “ICTs can create new types of economic activities, employment opportunities and improvements in service delivery of healthcare among other services.”

Moved by images of buildings crumbling like sand castles and children wandering the streets crying for parents buried in the rubble, I donated $10 to the Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund, excited that saving the world was as simple as texting — something I do daily without even thinking. Yéle reportedly collected more than $2 million from its SMS fundraising, which was lead by hip-hop producer and Yéle chairman Wyclef Jean. Then a report by Smoking Gun lifted Jean’s Superman cape. Turns out the organization had some serious financial mismanagement issues, including not filing taxes and large payouts given to Jean and his associates. Jean defended Yéle’s credibility, but the damage was done.One year after the earthquake, millions of Haitians are living in tents and dying in record numbers of curable diseases, even after donors around the world gave more than $14 billion.

This is what I call an aid fail.
Read more: http://techchange.org/2011/06/10/techvest-in-africa%E2%80%99s-future-what-africa-really-needs-right-now/

Monday, November 26, 2012

BlackBerry opens second apps lab in South Africa

Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, has announced the opening of its second BlackBerry apps lab in South Africa.
The new lab is based in Cape Town and follows on the launch of the BlackBerry apps lab at the University of Pretoria in May this year.
"Cape Town is a key innovation hub, and a natural site for RIM's second BlackBerry apps lab in South Africa," Alexandra Zagury, RIM's MD for South Africa and southern Africa, said in a statement on Friday.

'Fostering mobile innovation in Africa'

According to RIM, the aim of the BlackBerry apps labs is to help accelerate mobile application development in South Africa, thereby creating new economic opportunities and jobs in the mobile space, and to support the larger context and objectives of the South African Department of Communications' eSkills Institute.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Rwanda tops Africa in Broadband speed

Africa has always been viewed as a continent that isn’t very connected in terms of internet speeds and the number of users – compared to other parts of the world. Research done by Net Index has reaffirmed this belief, and while Africa has some pretty impressive average internet speeds, the continent’s top country only managed to rank 65th on their list of 174 countries from around the world.
Rwanda is officially ranked the fastest broadband Internet in Africa, according to latest statistics from Ookla’s NetIndex, overtaking Ghana.

Kigali — Moving Rwanda's economy from an agricultural based one to knowledge based one is part of the major plans that have to be achieved by the year 2020.

This called for intense input especially from the ICT sector which has gained much support and government backing to make this goal a reality.

An article by Lorentriesman explains the growth of tech community in Rwanda and its development to meet Kigali's vision.

Greetings to all from East Africa. In my recent trip, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet with some of the inspiring people who are working hard to ensure that Rwanda’s tech community is given the opportunity to thrive. Here’s an overview of some of the fantastic organisations and people I’ve been connecting with.

Mobile Monday Kampala examines the democratization of mobile broadband

Mobile Monday Kampala, the Ugandan chapter of the global network of mobile industry professionals, visionaries, developers and entrepreneurs, today hosted over one hundred delegates as speakers discussed “how the democratization of mobile broadband” will impact lives.

The discussions were centered on the opportunities presented by broadband internet such as tools that enable us work from home, video conferencing, cloud-based storage and backups; and how high-speed internet accessible via mobile devices influences our behavioral and consumption patterns.
Read more

Ghana Library Board - The Northern Regional Library

Library’s maternal health SMS service reaches over 90 women

Northern Regional Library’s Technology for Maternal Health Project has got off to a flying start: 94 pregnant women are now receiving vital health information sent directly to their mobile phones; the library’s health corner has been formally launched, and 10 health workers have been trained to use computers to conduct research.

Northern Regional Library in Tamale is working in partnership with the local development agency Savana Signatures to implement the maternal health service. Savana Signatures provides technical support for the SMS service, helped install the library Health Corner and provides information and communication technology (ICT) training for health workers.

No where else to experience it!

The IMAX Theatre is designed to put you IN the movies. IMAX's state-of-the-art technology delivers the world's most immersive movie experience through a revolutionary projection system, a powerful digital audio system and customized theatre geometry.

It is a skill that individuals have practiced either in a bid to stand apart from the society, or to improve the society. The word itself connotes innovation and creativity – coming up with something new or improving it.

Me and three of my friends decided to start a start-up company, Synacor, we all had the same path of thoughts and our different careers made us quite a team. Thus we decided to head into the entrepreneurship world, and this is what has made us to be Nokia Do Good Hackathon Winners, just 8 months into the business. We run by three things, faith, perseverance and determination… one must always be looking for ways to enable efficiency and improvement of your product. Douglas Injugu , Techpreneur.

Here are a few tips I have come to learnt in my last few years as an entrepreneur:

Hope and Faith

As an entrepreneur you need to have faith. These are times when you trust your guts, and when such times come, you need to have faith, you need to believe in somewhere inside you, it will work, and it doesn’t hurt if you fail, at least you tried, and got to know why it failed.

One thing I always say is that, the worst thing you can do as an individual who is starting a company is not taking risks involving your new product, the one you want to be your companies flag bearer, fear is the worst thing an entrepreneur can have. Thus hope and faith, with this two you will get to trust your instincts at least.

Kenya Climate Innovation Launch

A new business hub for African climate technology entrepreneurs was launched in Nairobi to boost locally sourced green technologies in the Africa region. The Kenya Climate Innovation Center (CIC), a cutting-edge facility, will offer financing and other services to a growing network of climate innovators and entrepreneurs.

The first of its kind in the world, it is expected to support up to 70 sustainable climate technology ventures in the first five years, and is set out to generate 4,600 direct and over 24,000 jobs in total within ten years.

read more

Teacher Opens Doors for Youth in Botswana using infoDev Business Incubation Training Global Forum Snapshot

Tommie Hamaluba has spent the majority of his career educating youth in Gaborone, Botswana; he now wants to use his passion for youth empowerment to help former students and other young people to create sustainable ICT-related businesses in his incubation facility- The Global Youth Alliance.

Tommie attended the Open Innovation Africa Summit in Nairobi last November and was inspired to combine his love of teaching with his academic background in business and marketing. In order to increase his incubation knowledge, he went to South Africa for infoDev Incubation Training in March and attended the 4th Global Forum on Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Helsinki to complete the remaining training modules.
Read more

What's next for ICT in Africa?

This infoDev session brought together entrepreneurs and researchers to discuss how the ICT landscape is shaping Africa's future.

As part of Financial and Private Sector Development week, infoDev and the Africa Finance & Sector Development Front Office hosted a session on the future role of ICT in Africa. The session was moderated by Valerie D'Costa, infoDev program manager, and included an expert panel of speakers. We were joined by:

Mouhamet Diop, Chairman and CEO, Kheweul.com; CEO, NEXT SA, Senegal

Javier Ewing, Managing Director, Excelsior Firm, East Africa

David Kaplan, Professor of Business-Government Relations and Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Bright Simons, Founder, mPedigree, Ghana read more

How Kenya has beaten the World in Mobile money

Click a few keys, exchange a few numbers, and it’s done. With just a mobile phone and a registration with Safaricom, Kenya’s mobile service giant, you can pay for anything in seconds – no cash, no long journeys to towns to reach a bank, and no long lines when you get there. This is m-Pesa, the revolutionary approach to banking which is changing economies across Africa. The service allows customers and businesses to pay for anything without needing cash, a bank account, or even a permanent address. In today’s Digital Diversity, in honour of its recent fifth birthday, we present a beginner’s guide to m-Pesa and examine its implications for financial access in developing economies.
read more

Updating the smartphone software for Android phones

How can I update my smartphone software to the latest version?

The software of the smartphone can be updated to fix specific issues, update applications or to update the used version of Android. Running the latest software will allow you to get the best from your smartphone.

PRECAUTION
During the update process, all data stored on your smartphone will be overwritten. This means all information, such as contacts, email and appointments, as well as software you installed yourself will be erased. Therefore, we recommend making a backup of all data before starting the update process.
REQUIREMENTS
To update to the latest software, you need the USB cable that shipped with your Acer smartphone and a free USB port on a computer that meets the following requirements:
read more

Friday, November 16, 2012

Eight ways journalists can use SoundCloud

Audio is an engaging way to bring readers and listeners deeper into a story, and it’s never been easier to tell stories with sound on the Web.

The best part: You don't need prior radio experience or access to expensive tools. SoundCloud, a Web-based audio program that allows users to create, share and collect audio clips, lets journalists and news organizations post, share and comment on audio with its free, user-friendly tools.

Launched in 2007 as a musician's resource, SoundCloud now has 20 million registered users, and is increasingly used for the spoken word. ReadWriteWeb recently described it as “a hub for radio-style journalism and commentary with an interactive twist.”

Here are some of the ways SoundCloud is being used around the world:

1. To post news programming

Traditional news outlets such as France 24 post their regular radio news programming on SoundCloud. This makes the news ripe for social sharing and available to a new audience. Listeners can also submit comments directly onto the audio track. The site lets users upload a total of 120 minutes of audio at any one time, but yearly subscriptions with more space are available for a fee.Read more

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Kenya leads East Africa in green technologies: World Bank

Kenya is leading the East African region in the implementation of green technologies, a World Bank official said on Tuesday.

World Bank Group Director of Innovation Gerardo Corrochano told Xinhua that the region could borrow from the lessons from the country's emerging industry.

"Kenya is quickly adopting green technologies due to a huge appetite and spirit from entrepreneurs eager to tap into the emerging opportunities," Corrochano said during a climate conference to launch the Climate Innovation Center (CIC) estimated to cost $12 million.

He added that the World Bank group has partnered with the Danish and British governments to set up the first center in the region and will be hosted at Strathmore University.

The director said that initial estimates indicate that over 5, 000 green jobs will be created by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that will be incubated in the facility.

The World Bank official said that commercial banks are yet to embrace extending loans to innovators of green technologies. "Green finance is an emerging ecosystem and so the banks are yet to fully understand the risks in the businesses," he said.

He noted that the World Bank is supporting low carbon growth initiatives in Kenya and will be used a model for the rest of the region.

World Bank Climate Technology Program Coordinator Jonathan Coony said that there is a lot of capital in the developed world looking for investment opportunities. "In the last few years, economic growth has been occurring in low income nations but perception of high risk has limited cash inflows," Coony said.Read more

What is Green technology?

The term "technology" refers to the application of knowledge for practical purposes.
The field of "green technology" encompasses a continuously evolving group of methods and materials, from techniques for generating energy to non-toxic cleaning products.
The present expectation is that this field will bring innovation and changes in daily life of similar magnitude to the "information technology" explosion over the last two decades. In these early stages, it is impossible to predict what "green technology" may eventually encompass.
The goals that inform developments in this rapidly growing field include:
Sustainability - meeting the needs of society in ways that can continue indefinitely into the future without damaging or depleting natural resources. In short, meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
"Cradle to cradle" design - ending the "cradle to grave" cycle of manufactured products, by creating products that can be fully reclaimed or re-used.
Source reduction - reducing waste and pollution by changing patterns of production and consumption.
Innovation - developing alternatives to technologies - whether fossil fuel or chemical intensive agriculture - that have been demonstrated to damage health and the environment.
Viability - creating a center of economic activity around technologies and products that benefit the environment, speeding their implementation and creating new careers that truly protect the planet.

12 Reasons Why Cloud Will Thrive In Africa

If you’re wondering what the future for Cloud technology in Africa looks like, the answer is bright. Very bright. There are many reasons why I believe Cloud as a technology will prosper in Africa –not just ideally but also practically and here are a few of them:

Rising Exposure: The African market has for the past few years been getting a lot of exposure to new & increasingly advanced internet technologies. The increased familiarity with tech is making people more accustomed to & thus more receptive to advanced solutions like cloud.
Smart Device Adoption: With a growing middle class we find that there is an increasing number of users who own one or more smart devices or at least use them on a daily basis. These devices are web enabled and optimized for easy use of web-based services such as cloud.

Kenya's leading technology incubator

NaiLab is a startup accelerator that offers a 3 to 12 months entrepreneurship program with focus on growing innovative technology driven ideas, this is done by providing business advice, technical training and support, professional mentoring and coaching, access to market, strategic partnership and most important investors.

The NaiLab focuses on early stage business ideas that are likely to have a large social and economic impact, are highly scalable, require minimum investments to prototype and have a strong value proposition.

Hubs in Africa

BongoHive, Lusaka's Technology and Innovation Hub, was set up in May 2011 and provides a place for technology entrepreneurs to meet, swap experience, and attend training, networking and hackathon events.

Visit

Africa: Technology Innovation Can Develop Africa

Naivasha, Kenya. With the highest rates of mobile technology growth being recorded in Africa, experts attending the Open Innovation Africa Summit (OIAS) in Naivasha, Kenya recently said that there is still need for innovation in developing local content for Africa to have social economic development.
Delegates at the first OIAS included delegates from public policy specialists, researchers, entrepreneurs, ICT experts and financiers who are vital in creating various demand-driven innovations that would improve the standard of living on the African continent.
These delegates from the government, private sector and financiers are vital in creating the working environment for the development of ICT content that is relevant for the content.
Read more

African innovations

Across Africa, developers and programmers are coming up with new technologies from mobile banking to mapping software and medical tablets to cloud storage. Now the continent is increasingly relying on its own homegrown innovations.

But this technology revolution is not without its challenges. So what are the obstacles facing the industry, and will this new breed of innovators be able to overcome them?

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012