Making It Easy To Bring Cell Phone Apps To Africa

In many parts of the U.S., you can’t turn a corner without bumping into someone talking on their smartphone. In developing nations, this isn’t the case; cell phones are pervasive (57% of adults have cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa), but few people have the iPhones and Android phones that are popular elsewhere.

Here’s the problem: Cell phones provide unprecedented opportunities for communication, but the basic phones used by people in, say, Kenya, don’t have the apps that many of us are so fond of. That might seem trivial, but the Internet penetration rate in Africa is only 10% to 15%--and that means there are a lot of people missing out on things that smartphone users routinely access, like email, mobile money transfer, and the Internet’s wealth of information. But while smartphones may have slick interfaces and app stores, there are plenty of ways to bring the functionality of apps to basic phones.

Nigerian Stock Market app now available on Android, Blackberry, iphone/ipad and windows

InfoWARE Limited/Solutaris LLC has released a mobile app “Nigerian Stocks” on all the top mobile platforms in the world. The app delivers daily market updates such as Top Gainers, Top Losers, News, Analytics and more about Nigerian stocks to anyone with a smartphone no matter the platform. This puts Nigeria and the NSE squarely on the world map and will enable investors anywhere in the world to have readily accessible data right on their mobile devices in a user friendly app.

You can install the app on any mobile devices absolutely free using any of the links below.

1. On Android, click here.
2. On Blackberry, click here
3. On iphone/ipad, click here, and 
4. for WINDOWS 7, Click here 

Check it out. Interesting.......

MTN Afrinolly : Watch African nollywood movie trailers, full length films on your phones.

Nigeria’s Afrinolly won Google Android Developer Challenge last year and it has now partnered with MTN to provide a smartphone application that enables users to view and share African nollywood movies and videos, and entertainment news on mobile phones. This application is available on Android, Blackberry and Nokia Smartphones.

Go to www.afrinolly.com to download the appropriate app for your smartphone.

Airtel Hello Tunes Rewards campaign launches in Nigeria

Airtel and Samsung have joined forces to offer prizes to people who download Airtel's Hello tunes (ring back tones or caller tunes).

Airtel Hello Tunes Rewards Campaign, will enable customers win exciting Samsung products ranging from Samsung Galaxy Y phones and Galaxy Tabs to the more striking Samsung 3D TV sets, on a daily and monthly basis for 90 days.

To win these prizes, customers are expected to download as many tunes as possible by dialing 791. Alternatively, they can also download by dialing *791#, while new customers to the network should subscribe by texting SUB to 791.

Every day for 90 days, four (4) Airtel customers will win a Samsung Galaxy Y phone each, which will be bundled with up to 200MB worth of data free of charge; three (3) customers at the end of every month will smile home with Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet each, also bundled with free 500MB of data per month for 3 months, while one (1) subscriber will win a High Definition 55in 3D Samsung LED Smart TV and a Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet with free 500MB of data per month for 6 months, at the end of the 90 day campaign.

Do not miss out of this! Simply dial 791 or visit the website: www.ng.airtel.com. Subscription to Hello Tunes cost N100 per month. Each tune download costs N100 too. The Competition takes place from 25th June 2012 till 23rd of September 2012. Start downloading your Hello Tunes Now!  


You can reach Airtel Nigeria at Airtel Facebook page www.facebook.com/airtelng and Twitter handle @AirtelNigeria

Saipem awarded new E&C Onshore contracts worth $1 billion in Saudi Arabi and Nigeria

San Donato Milanese (Milan), 27 June 2012 – Saipem has been awarded new E&C Onshore contracts in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria worth approximately $1 billion.

In Saudi Arabia, Saipem has signed a lump sum EPC contract for the Naphtha and Aromatics Package (RP2) of the Rabigh II Project with Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical, for the expansion of the integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex in the city of Rabigh, located in north of Jeddah, on the Western coast of Saudi Arabia.

The scope of work includes the engineering, procurement and construction of two processing units: a Naptha Reformer Unit and an Aromatics Complex. The project will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2015.

Naspers reports 19% increase in year-end revenue as it experienced growth in most businesses

Naspers today reported a 19% increase in consolidated revenue to R39,5 billion for the year ended 31 March 2012. Core headline earnings, considered by the board to be a good indication of sustainable performance, were up 15% on the previous year to R6,9 billion or R18,50 per share. This was achieved while accelerating the organic development of businesses and incurring costs of R2,8 billion in the process. Positive free cash flows amounted to R3,6 billion. A dividend increase of 24% to R3,35 is proposed.

"We experienced stronger growth across most of our businesses," Naspers chairman Ton Vosloo said. "The internet remains the key growth area, with several new services being developed."

Internet segment revenues advanced 59% year on year to R19,2 billion. Due to an increased focus on scaling e-commerce platforms and building operations organically, trading profits increased at a slower rate of 9% to R3,8 billion.

How Music started from Africa

This Thomson blog post was originally titled - How Music Travels – The Evolution of Western Dance Music. The infographic shows the evolution of top level dance genres and also the evolution of western dance music over the last 100 years. The map shows the time and place where each of the music styles were born and which blend of genres influenced the next.

What is worthy of note is that it all started from Africa - the traditional African music - evolved into so many genres of music. Click on the infographic below and tell us what you think.

                                         Click image to open interactive version (via Thomson Holidays).

YouTube takes-off in the birthplace of Azonto!

When azonto was first performed by dance groups in Ghana, no one would have guessed how far it would go. Today, the fact that the world is intrigued by azonto confirms that Ghana has much to share with the world.

Today, we are delighted to announce the launch of www.youtube.com.gh, a version of YouTube that will give Ghanaians an easy way to discover local content and content producers. From today, when Ghanaian users visit the Ghana domain, they will instantly see the most popular videos in Ghana, as well as videos that are most relevant to them.

We have partnered with local content producers and broadcasters like the Multimedia Group and Pidgen Music to bring a more diverse mix of Ghanaian content to YouTube, and we’re looking forward to seeing more Ghanaian videos online. 

Is your internet connection speed making you wait a long time to watch videos? Don’t worry, we have a solution! Try the lighter low-bandwidth version of YouTube called YouTube Feather at www.youtube.com/testtube. With this, you will still have a good video experience.

If you’re not one of the millions already taking over dance floors with your azonto moves, here is a video that will show you how.

And, once you’re done, you can also start sharing your life, work or voice on www.youtube.com.gh. Who knows, you just might create the next international movement!

Source: Google Africa Blog

SMS for Life: saving lives through improving access to malaria treatments

Malaria continues to be a significant health problem, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 216 million people are infected every year and approximately 655,000 die from malaria, mostly children under five and pregnant women.

Effective medicines to treat the disease exist. For instance, Novartis, a multinational healthcare company, delivers its antimalarial artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) Coartem® without profit to the public sector of malaria-endemic countries. Since 2001, the company has provided 500 million ACT treatments, impacting more than one million lives.

A key challenge in the fight against malaria is to ensure medicines reach those who most need them: patients living in remote rural areas with poor access to health services. Yet, stock-outs of medicines at the health facility level are a big and persistent problem in many sub-Saharan countries. Once drugs reach the country and enter the supply chain, there is little or no visibility on what happens. This makes it extremely difficult to manage the supply chain and to anticipate stock-outs of life-saving drugs.

Samsung eyes 10 mln mark for Galaxy S3 by end of July 2012

SEOUL — South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone maker, said on Monday it expects to have sold 10 million of its newest Galaxy S3 model by the end of July, two months after its launch.

J.K. Shin, head of the mobile communications division, said robust sales of the model would help Samsung's mobile business post a second-quarter profit bigger than the first three months.

"We're getting more positive reviews for Galaxy S3 than the previous Galaxy S1 and S2 since the release in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia beginning May 29," Shin said at an event to mark the phone's domestic release on Monday.

He estimated that global sales of the new phone -- currently available in 147 countries -- would surpass 10 million next month, including about a million to be sold at home.

Anthonie Roux (Naspers) passes on at age 54

Antonie Roux

MIH and Naspers’ internet operations worldwide is mourning the death of its head, Antonie Roux. Antonie died at a hospital in Heidelberg, Germany after undergoing pancreatic cancer surgery.

Roux was also a founding member of M-Net. He had worked for Naspers, Africa's largest media company, for over 20 years beginning from junior technician right until he became the chief executive officer and director of MIH Holdings as well as the CEO of Naspers Internet Operations at the time of his passing.

Naspers CEO Koos Bekker said Roux’s main characteristic was his exceptional lust for life. "He was curious about everything and anyone; very loyal.

"He was one of the few people worldwide that made a seamless transition from print media to television and the internet.”

He was aged 54.

CcHubNigeria welcomes Samsung Nigeria at June's edition of "Developers Parapo"

With 42.1 million of the 144.9 million smartphones shipped worldwide in Q1 2012, Samsung reclaimed the leadership position as no 1 smartphone brand in the world in terms of market share. Propelling this achievement was Samsung's continued expansion of its Galaxy range of devices.

This growth in number of smartphones is reflected in huge growth in number of mobile apps downloaded worldwide, which grew at an accelerated rate of 56.6% last year and is set to reach 98 billion downloads by 2015. With most apps free to download, forecasters say the challenge for the industry and developers is to come up with ways to monetise their applications.

At June’s edition of Developers Parapo, a strong team from Samsung led by Jude Omozegie - Head, Product Marketing will share experiences and engage the tech community on strategies, models, pricing and best practices for monetising mobile content through Samsung platform. Come and learn first hand how content owners, providers and aggregators can partner with Samsung to maximise exposure and create remarkable value.

US Startup Boot Camp Goes to Africa

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - A U.S.-government initiative to spread innovation and entrepreneurship in Muslim-majority countries is preparing its first boot camp in sub-Saharan Africa. 

In the offices of the Global Innovation Through Science and Technology, applications are being processed and new partnerships are being made for the upcoming West Africa Startup Boot Camp in Dakar, Senegal.

The July event will include motivational speaking, practical seminars, mentoring, meetings with potential investors and a pitch competition.

Flipboard now on Android phones

It was recognised as Apple’s 2010 iPad app of the year but I only knew about it when I got my first ipad this year. Yes! it took some time before I got my first ipad. I was satisfied with my Samsung Android tablet and the only reason I considered the ipad was because of the vast number and variety of apps available in the Apple App store. 

Now one of the apps that I got hooked on is the Flipboard. Flipboard is social magazine application. It collects the content of social media and other websites and presents it in magazine format and allows users to "flip" through their social-networking feeds and feeds from websites that have partnered with the company.
Now thankfully, it is available on Android phones as of today, 22 June 2012 and of course, I was one of the first to download it on my Samsung Notebook.

Huawei to set up Global Network Operations Centre (GNOC) in Nigeria

Huawei R&D staff performing routine maintenance at a testing center.

In a recent interaction with journalists, the Managing Director of Huawei in Nigeria, Pan Fan declared that "Huawei will set up three Global Network Operation Centres and one of them is in Lagos." He added that the Lagos GNOC is expected to be open for use in July this year and it would be of great value in training of telecom experts.

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider based in China but with operations around the world. Since entering the African market in 1997, Huawei has established four regional headquarters, 20 representative offices, two R&D centers and six training centers across Africa. Huawei's fixed assets investment in Africa over the past decade has exceeded USD 1.5 billion.

Fan also added that they have already built a training centre in Abuja. “Huawei aims to be a localised company by expanding its local investment. We have built a technical training centre in Abuja, which is the first one built by any telecommunications solutions provider here. The centre has trained more than 5,000 telecommunication engineers for various stakeholders,” Fan said.

Fan added “We have made strategic investments, augmented our research and development capabilities and deployed resources globally, and implemented a future-oriented business architecture that puts Huawei in a confident position for sustained growth.”

Huawei opened its Nigerian office in 1999.

Samsung demonstrates the power of the new Galaxy S III in Lagos tomorrow, June 23 2012

Samsung Galaxy SIII

Samsung in Nigeria will be demonstrating the power of the new Samsung Galaxy SIII to consumers in Lagos tomorrow, Saturday June 23, 2012.

The demo session will happen at 2 different locations:

• Samsung Brand Shop (SIMS): Ikeja Mall, Alausa Ikeja
• Samsung Brand Shop (Dajcom): The Palms Shopping Mall, Lekki

Customers who come to either store will stand a chance of winning exciting prices and an opportunity to walk away with a Galaxy SIII through raffle draws.

Those who purchase the Galaxy SIII will also get free exciting freebies/ accessories like: Flip covers, MTN Micro SIM, LED cleaners, etc

Huawei receives award for "Best Cloud Platform for Africa"

[Johannesburg, South Africa, June 2012]: Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, received a prestigious award from Informa Telecom for the "Best Cloud Platform for Africa" for their "Galax" Cloud Platform at the Awards Dinner.

The Huawei Galax platform is the core component of Huawei’ cloud computing system solutions, and it has been used all over the world. This Huawei Galax platform focuses on both Carrier and Enterprise Cloud Transformation, it is an automated management of large-capacity scheduling platform, unified, open, flexible scheduling, convenient operation and maintenance, fine billing, and this cloud platform is the best choice for new generation data centre. Huawei’s contribution to African countries technical progress is highly recognized by the "Best Cloud Platform for Africa" award.

Amongst many other benefits, Huawei Galax Cloud Platform provides a self-service purchase portal and pay-per-use billing for end-users to help reduce their costs. End-users can order virtual resources according to their business requirements and flexibly adjust scales when the service fluctuates. A service fee would be determined by actual virtual resource usage conditions.

Nigeria: FG Abandons $200m Rural Telephony Project

The federal government is planning to abandon the little successful $200 million National Rural Telephony Project (NRTP) it conceived in 2001 to take telephony services to the rural areas. The exit follows the full liberalisation of the telecommunications sector and government’s poor execution of the project from inception.

A top official of the Ministry of Communications Technology said the government was about finalising the handing over to the indigenous operators that won the bid. “We are about finalizing the handover of the authority to the private operators to manage the project. We will soon make the announcement,” the official said.

The project, inaugurated under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term in office, was to cover 218 local government areas in the first phase and provide over 636,256 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) lines in the 774 local government areas and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the second phase to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas.

MTN offers mobile advertising with "MTN mobile ad"

This is definitely a first of its kind in the Nigerian Telecoms industry. MTN is the first telco to use its network to avail clients the ability to offer mobile advertisements to targetted subscribers. And MTN, being the largest mobile network with over 50 million MTN subscribers , would appeal to any would-be intending advertiser.

This new service is tagged “MTN mobile Ad”.

According to MTN Enterprise Solutions Officer, Mr. Babatunde OSho, Mobile advertising is a cost effective means for brands to directly target advertising at the mobile phones of prospects and customers who would want products and services in a more measurable manner than many other channels currently provide.

NITDA to submit new software policy to FEC

The National Information Development Agency of Nigeria is set to submit the draft National Software Policy to the Federal Executive Council for approval.

The Director-General, NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, disclosed this to our correspondent on Monday, saying the IT development agency received the draft policy on June 14, 2012 from the committee set up in 2010 to develop it.

The committee, which was inaugurated on December 10, 2010, according to Angaye, comprised eminent Nigerians representing various stakeholder organisations from both the public and private sectors and the civil society group, which worked rigorously to produce the final copy.

Microsoft stirs buzz on iPad challenge

AFP - Microsoft has set the tech world buzzing with a mysterious announcement Monday which sparked speculation that the software giant may be developing a product to challenge the Apple iPad.

The announcement by the world's biggest software firm was shrouded in secrecy, and fueled a series of reports, some of which were contradictory.


Invitations late last week said, "This will be a major Microsoft announcement -- you will not want to miss it."

Even the location, somewhere in Los Angeles, was kept under wraps, with the precise venue to be sent to journalists on Monday.

Last week, the entertainment website The Wrap said it had learned Microsoft would unveil its own branded tablet powered by Windows in a head-on challenge to Apple.

Air Nigeria is first African carrier to offer the iPad 3 after IFE Services tie-up

Knutsford, Cheshire, UK. IFE Services announced today that it has been selected by Air Nigeria as its in-flight entertainment (IFE) provider.

The agreement covers the provision of entertainment content across the airline’s fleet of A330s. Passengers in business class will be offered a complimentary iPad 3 on which to enjoy Nigerian, classic and latest release Hollywood movies as well as a broad selection of comedy, lifestyle, drama and kids TV shows. Air Nigeria is the first African carrier to offer the iPad 3 to passengers as an in-flight entertainment solution.

In economy class, passengers can enjoy latest release Hollywood movies and a selection of TV shows on the airplanes’ digital mainscreen systems. IFE Services is also producing a new animated safety film for the airline.

“It’s been a pleasure working with Air Nigeria on its fresh new IFE offering,” said Andy McEwan, CEO of IFE Services. “The iPad is a great portable solution that we know passengers will love to use whilst airborne. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with this innovative, growing airline to help provide them with the best possible passenger experience.”

“We are pleased to offer our passengers this unique product to ensure they are relaxed and enjoy first class entertainment on our flights, using state-of-the-art technology,” said Kinfe Kahssaye, CEO of Air Nigeria. “We have always been at the forefront of introducing innovative products for the comfort of our passengers and the content provided by IFE Services for the iPads is such that it will add style to our customers’ travel pattern.”

Etisalat partners with Total Nigeria to provide services at all fuel stations nationwide

Etisalat Nigeria has signed a partnership deal with Total Nigeria to provide its services at all 95 Total filling stations nationwide. These services will be offered at the sales outlets and experience centres to be established at the Total stations.

This deal was signed recently in Lagos between the Chairman of Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Hakeem Bello-Osagie, and a team of Total Nigeria staff, led by its Managing Director, Mr. Francois Boussago

According to Bello-Osagie, "Etisalat is recognised as being the most innovative and fastest growing GSM operator in the Nigerian market and we have been consistent in our over three years of operation in the country.

"We are proud to be working in strategic partnership with Total in executing this agreement which is in line with our ambition to extend our innovative products services to all frontiers of the country and ensure unparalleled customer experience", he added.

Commenting on the partnership, Boussagol said, "In ensuring customers satisfaction, we have a commitment towards constant innovation and creativity in our retail outlets which is demonstrated in the strategic partnership with Etisalat for the desired mutual brand affinity. Total Nigeria has the core of its marketing strategy, an abiding commitment to excellence in customer service delivery."

International student, Tade Oyerinde launches Gumtree rival in Leeds, UK.

For most, selling old textbooks and unwanted junk online is an arduous task. But for international student Tade Oyerinde, it’s becoming a lucrative venture.

The web savvy 19 year old, along with a pal from Charles Morris Halls, created the site www.gleepost.com exclusively for Leeds University students to sell anything from unwanted Summer Ball tickets to cars.

Tade created the site, which gets over 400 visitors a week and once shifted a car worth over £6000, with Computing student Patrick Molgaard to make life easier for students wanting to flog their stuff.

Click here to read full article

Happy Father's Day

Celebrating Fathers Day Google Style.  Google's doodle

Fathers Day is always celebrated every third Sunday of June. Happy Father's day

INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future - Participate in the multidisciplinary contest series

Launched in 2011 as a three year initiative, “INDIAFRICA – A Shared Future” is a dynamic platform to exchange ideas about emergent realities, successes and challenges, and to imagine future collaborations in business, design and culture, understanding diverse nations as interdependent creative problem solvers with unique and invaluable resources and talents.

“INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future” invites a creative exchange between young Africans and Indians through a multidisciplinary contest series and a Young Visionaries fellowship program.

The multidisciplinary contest series are in the areas of Business Plans, Essay Writing, Photography and Poster Design. There is also a Fellowship Programme - A Young Visionaries Fellowship Programme which is a unique initiative identifying promising young entrepreneurs in India and Africa and offering opportunities for growth and collaboration.

Sipho Maseko, MD of Vodacom SA resigns with immediate effect

The MD of Vodacom SA and Chief Operating Officer of the Vodacom Group, Sipho Maseko, has resigned with immediate effect (14th of June, 2012). This was announced by the Cellular Operator yesterday evening.

Sipho Maseko joined Vodacom in September 2011 from BP Southern Africa. He is said to "be going to pursue other interests".

Vodacom Group chairman Peter Moyo says: “Sipho has made a positive contribution to Vodacom during his time with the Group, providing valuable external perspective to our strategy discussions.

“On behalf of the entire group, I wish Sipho the best of luck for the future.”

Maseko said: “I wish to thank the Board, shareholders and all my colleagues at Vodacom for a wonderful opportunity in the last few months. My stay here has been stimulating and I’ve learned a lot.

I wish the company all the best for the future”.

Ethiopian Government Bans Skype, Google Talk And All Other VoIP Services

The Ethiopian government, Al Jazeera reports, has criminalized the use of Skype and other VoIP services like Google Talk. Using VoIP services is now punishable by up to 15 years in prison. This law actually passed last month, but mostly went unnoticed outside of the country. Ethiopian authorities argue that they imposed these bans because of “national security concerns” and to protect the state’s telecommunications monopoly. The country only has one ISP, the state-owned Ethio Telecom, and has been filtering its citizen’s Internet access for quite some time now to suppress opposition blogs and other news outlets.

USE SKYPE, GO TO PRISON

As for Skype and other VoIP services, the new law doesn’t just criminalize their usage, but the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology now has “the power to supervise and issue licenses to all privately owned companies that import equipment used for the communication of information.” It’s worth noting that, as TechCentral points out, the new law also prohibits “audio and video data traffic via social media.” It’s not clear how exactly the government plans to enforce this restriction, but a potential 15-year prison term will likely keep most people from using Skype in Ethiopia anytime soon.

Read the full article from Techcrunch.....

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou set for take-off with a pan-African airline in Lonrho deal

We reported some time ago that Sir Stelios of Easyjet was thinking of coming into Africa. It seems that it may soon become a reality. Please read on....

EasyJet's founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou moved closer to launching a pan-African, low-cost airline yesterday after a British investment firm he is part of bought Lonhro's African aviation business.

The deal will see Lonhro's popular East African, low-cost carrier Fly540 expand its existing operations before being relaunched as Fastjet later this year.

The deal values Lonrho's aviation division, which operates in Angola, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya, at $85.7m (£55.1m) and injects that business into the Aim-listed cash shell Rubicon in which the easyJet founder took a 5 per cent share stake.

Naspers' owned Dealfish rebrands in Nigeria and Kenya. Now to be known as OLX.

It started with with the rebranding of Kalahariads in South Africa. And as was expected, OLX has now spread its tentacles to Sub-saharan Africa. This has led to the rebranding of the Naspers' owned Dealfish to OLX in Nigeria and Kenya.

According to Naspers, OLX is a much bigger and more successful brand in its group of companies and a decision was taken to roll this brand across the different continents.

OLX is a free classified entity founded by Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford in 2006. Fabrice works from New York while Alec works out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In August 2010, Naspers invested in OLX. It currently owns 84% of OLX.

OLX boasts of a better platform and is backed by experts in different areas of the classified markets. It is expected that the transformation from Dealfish to OLX in Sub-Saharan Africa will greatly increase its performance in the African continent.

Welcome OLX, bye Dealfish.

Vodacom empowers students on ICT development

As part of its contribution to the development of ICT knowledge in tertiary institutions and youth empowerment, Vodacom Business Nigeria, a pan-African corporate total communication solutions, has organized a three day ICT workshop for the students of Benue State University.

The workshop which is aimed at exposing the students to practical applications of the theoretical knowledge of ICT had in attendance, lecturers and students from the Department of Mathematics/ Computer Science of the University who were taken through real life scenario of ICT.Taking the students through the practical application of ICT at Vodacom’s corporate office in Lagos, the Executive Head of Networks, Vodacom Nigeria, Mr. Vernon Van Rooyen explained the various network equipment, coverage, operations and maintenance.

Olu Akanmu Joins Airtel As Chief Marketing Officer

Newly-appointed Olu Akanmu joins Airtel as Chief Marketing Officer

Telecommunications Services Provider Airtel Nigeria has announced the appointment of Olu Akanmu as Chief Marketing Officer with effect from 1 June, 2012.

Newly-appointed Olu Akanmu joins Airtel as Chief Marketing Officer (image: Airtel)

Akanmu, an accomplished marketing professional, motivational speaker and seasoned manager, will lead Airtel’s quest to reclaim market leadership and assist the company to realize its primary objective of being the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians by 2015.

Speaking on the appointment, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, Rajan Swaroop, said Airtel is extremely committed to empowering more Nigerian professionals to take top leadership positions in the company, saying the company is proud that more talented Nigerian professionals are targeting it as their employer of choice.

Okopoly: Trailblazer In Emergency Medical Response

The first campus emergency medical response Initiative in Nigeria has been launched at the Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra State. The project is a joint venture between the polytechnic, the Global Medical Horizon, an Israeli based healthcare provider and the Plusfactor Initiative, the facilitators of the project.

The launching of the initiative started with the commissioning of a state-of-the-art diagnostic centre in the campus, which the Israeli partners explained has enough equipment to meet any form of emergency health need, while explaining that the facilities in it are the very best, and better than most paraded by top class health institutions in Nigeria.

For a polytechnic that does not produce medical doctors, not a few wonder why the facility was established in the institution. According to Onu, the initiative is a fulfilment of his promise to install a health facility that will take care of students’ health and even that of members of the public.

The leader of the Israeli team from Global Medical Horizon, Dr Avi Hirshru, also explained that the centre boasts of medical equipment such as cardiac monitoring device, digital haematological analyser and digital chemical analyser which are the very first in Africa and one of the first in the world.

The Walking Dead? – Banks And The Future Of African Payments

Victor Asemota is someone that has spent a long time in the Payments space in Africa. He writes this insightful piece about his recent experience at the last AITEC Banking and Mobile Money West Africa conference held in Accra, Ghana. 

Please read...

I recently attended the last AITEC Banking and Mobile Money West Africa conference held this time at Accra. The more I attend Mobile Money events in Africa, the more I am convinced that there needs to be an Open Source Payments/Mobile Money initiative. It seems to me that there are no real patents in this space as everyone reinvents the wheel and calls it a “new product”. Somehow the standards are being created as threshold requirements emerge. Core competences amongst the players are rapidly becoming threshold features as they all try to outdo each other.

Everyone claims to be able to do everything, it seems vendors are all hauling dung on the wall and seeing what will stick. I personally believe that if you have a good business case and a sensible model, you will not require all the bells and whistles at once. The competition is however great for setting standards.

One fundamental problem is that most mobile payments technology vendors claim to have the best product since sliced bread and very few admit failures or shortcomings. Even those experienced players who apparently get it and know where we should go promoting "open loop" platforms are actually pushing for a "bigger closed loop" according to Tamara Cook from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in response to a Visa/Fundamo presentation.

The Visa presentation was a departure from those of the others as it made quite clear the awesome plans Visa has later this year with Visa Prepaid. But the overall most presenters from vendors were always quick to point out the wonderful features of their products. It became boring after a while when it started to all look like a pitching hall. There were few gems from the rough however and some brilliant insights were provided.

Please continue by clicking here..

Young African innovators showcase projects in Spain

Five young African innovators from Ethiopia and Senegal now have the chance to display their innovations after nine months of hard work at the CREATIC4AFRICA innovation lab in Spain.

This follows a special event organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Technology Centre for ICTs (CTIC) on ‘Innovation in ICTs – the CREATIC4AFRICA initiative’.

With the help of CREATIC4AFRICA, the innovators came up with several ideas including a mobile-based decision support system to improve child health care (mobile e-health system) by Andualem Workneh (Ethiopia) and telephone-based vehicle security system by Israel Belema Kebede (ethiopia).

The Google Apps Developer Challenge is here again - the 2012 edition

The Google Apps developer Challenge is here again. This time, Google is looking forward to giving developers the opportunity to focus on Google Apps Script, Google Apps and Google Drive APIs.

With the Google Apps Developer Challenge, Google expects developers across the globe to find new and innovative ways to use Apps Script, Apps and Drive APIs to build cool apps. This challenge is particularly unique as the APIs are available to a large community of developers who code in a variety of languages that include Java, PHP, Python, and .Net.

Google will be working in collaboration with our Google Developer Groups (also known as GTUGs) and Google Business Groups to organize events and prepare for this challenge. Make sure to join your local community so that you are aware of meet ups.

Developers in 6 regions across the world will win prizes that include Chromebooks and up to $20,000 USD with other special prizes for students and female developers! All you have to do is build and submit an amazing application in one of these categories:

• Enterprise / Small Business Solutions
• Social / Personal Productivity / Games / Fun
• Not-for-Profit: Education / Water / Food & Hunger / Health

A winner will be chosen for each category, in each region -- 18 prizes in total.

Click here to know more about the Challenge and follow the hashtag #gappschallenge on Google+ for any additional updates.

Mocality launches in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Last month, Mocality launched Mocality deals. Last week, Mocality moved to Port-Harcourt in the South eastern part of Nigeria. With this launch, Nigerians living in Rivers state can now list their businesses online, giving them the opportunity to be visible online.

Recently, it also gave its directory members to ability to have their own web pages by providing free web page templates for them to choose from.

Mocality boasts to be one of the biggest online directory in Nigeria and it has done so within the short time in existence in Nigeria. Though we are not quite sure of the number of businesses on its directory, it is rumoured to be above 250,000.

Slowly but surely, Mocality is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Nigerian online space. Goodluck.

Sabunta.com, the second Rocket Internet property, finally launches in Nigeria

It is the second Rocket Internet property to launch in Nigeria. This is coming after the recent launch of Kasuwa.com, the Amazon clone, also in Nigeria. 

Sabunta is an online fashion store in Nigeria. It strives to offer shoppers the latest trends and must-haves for every season, bringing Nigerians the best shopping experience. Sabunta aims to offer Nigerians a wide variety of international brands without the hassle of going to the shops. The site currently boasts of clothing, footwear and accessories from True Religion, Rocco Cavalli and many more.

Sabunta in Nigeria -  Oops! wrong image - No winter in Nigeria?!

As part of its launch package, Sabunta is offering 1000 Naira sign-up voucher and free shipping within Nigeria. Sabunta is offering Cash on Delivery and 14 Day easy return policy. 

Sabunta promises to offer the kind of service that its sister company Zando is offering the South African populace. 

Welcome Sabunta.  By the way, wrong image - No winter in Nigeria.

Airtel inks global deal with Opera

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel, a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced that it has signed a global arrangement with Opera Software to offer a customized and co-branded version of Opera Mini internet browser for Airtel mobile customers across its operations. With this, over 253 million Airtel customers across countries including India, South Asia and Africa will now be able to leverage Opera Mini’s unique proxy-server-based technology to compress data by up to 90% and decrease their data transfer costs.

Designed for speed and ease of use, Opera Mini provides remarkably fast browsing on nearly any mobile phone. It is proven to make browsing up to nine times as fast as client-only mobile browsers on both 2/2.5G and 3G networks. With its small footprint and high level of usability, Opera Mini provides a consistent user experience across a broad range of handsets.

RIM (Makers of Blackberry) discards 16 GB PlayBook tablet

BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion Ltd, will no longer produce the cheapest version of its poorly selling PlayBook tablet, but it said it remains committed to a tablet computer market it has struggled to break into.

RIM said it would phase out the 16 GB model of the PlayBook once stock currently with retailers is depleted. The company will continue to produce 32 and 64 GB versions of the device, which can hold more music, video and other content and which likely boast better margins.

RIM sold the 16 GB version for $199, while the 32 GB and 64 GB models are priced at $249 and $299.

Time For An African Valley? — Sub-Saharan Accelerators Start To Emerge

This is a blog post from Mark Butcher of Techcrunch. 

The news that i/o Ventures had launched the Savannah Fund in Africa is clearly welcome news for an emerging continent. It’s $10m fund size will be a shot in the arm for the eco-system there. But I was surprised to see that it was being described in some quarters as the “first ever” Sub-Saharan African incubator and accelerator. Because it patently is not.

“I think MEST would actually be the first model in this space,” said African tech watcher Ben White of vc4africa.biz when I asked him about this. MEST has a fund size of $20m, although it’s invested via a non-profit.

So to start getting into this, it may be that we are well over-due for a run-down of accelerators in Africa. Here’s what we’ve found so far.

Valley Vets Launch $10M Savannah Fund, Sub-Saharan Africa’s First Accelerator

A recent blog post by Sarah Lacy...Read on

We’ve written about i/o Ventures in San Francisco and its glitzier cousin in LA. The newest venture by i/o co-founder Paul Bragiel and i/o entrepreneur-in-residence Mbwana Alliy is significantly different.

Today, at a conference in Nairobi, they are launching the first Sub-Saharan African Incubator and Accelerator, called the Savannah Fund. Bragiel and Alliy are general partners in the fund along with Erik Hersman, a Nairobi-based technologist and blogger, who co-founded Ushahidi, a powerful open source platform for crowdsourcing information. Alliy and Hersman are both based on the ground in Nairobi where they’ll be hands on mentoring very early stage companies.

This has been no trivial undertaking. Bragiel and Alliy have talked about putting together an African incubator for years. They first tried starting an incubator in Alliy’s home country of Tanzania. That didn’t work out, so the two shifted their efforts towards Kenya, which has become the de facto tech hub in Sub-Saharan Africa. The world has been agog at the runaway success of mobile payment wonder child M-PESA which processes more than 25 percent of Kenya’s GDP.

Click to continue here courtesy of Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily

Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily. She is an award winning journalist and author of two critically acclaimed books, "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0" (Gotham Books, May 2008) and "Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos" (Wiley, February 2011). She has been covering technology news for over 15 years, most recently as a senior editor for TechCrunch.

Nigerians can watch the 2012 Olympic games live on the IOC's Olympic YouTube channel

This summer will host the world to the Olympic Games in London, United Kingdom taking place from the July 27 to August 12, 2012. If you cannot make it to London, you can watch the live coverage on your desktop, tablet, or mobile device courtesy of Google's YouTube and the International Olympic Committee.

Nigerians and people resident in Singapore, India, Malaysia, Uganda and Kenya can tune in to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) YouTube channel to enjoy live coverage of the events as well as highlight clips free-of-charge. As mentioned in a recent Google blog post, the IOC channel will have 10 HD live-feeds from the Games, running from 9am to 11pm London time, plus a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel. There will also be highlight reels and full videos of events after they’ve finished — all organized by the day, medal event, or the sport.

So sporting fans will be ready to enjoy over 2,200 hours of high-definition sporting event coverage from London 2012, including all the medal finals.

Enjoy. 

Made better in China - The globalization of Chinese brands and Innovations

A friend sent me this article from trendwatching.com which shows that Chinese brands and innovations are going global.

"China still faces many potential obstacles in its attempts to foster a deep and lasting culture of innovation and creativity (State economics! Politics! Demographics! The environment! Intellectual property!).

However an avalanche of Chinese brands are already catering to an increasingly large and sophisticated internal market, and competing with and even beating established incumbents from all over the world at their own game. Just think what the future will hold when China is truly unleashed."

The article claims that there are just three forces driving the MADE BETTER IN CHINA phenomenon:

1. Urban Boom, 
2. Best of the West in the East, and 
3. Global Brain.

Please click here to continue.

Source: Trendwatching.com

Today is World IPv6 launch day - June 6, 2012

Hmm.... What is IPv6? IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP) intended to succeed IPv4, which is the communications protocol currently used to direct almost all Internet traffic. IPv4 is the current version of the Internet Protocol, the identification system the Internet uses to send information between devices. This system assigns a series of four numbers (each ranging from 0 to 255) to each device. IPv4 only allows for about 4 billion addresses and the Internet needs more room than that. IPv6 is the new version of the Internet Protocol and expands the number of available addresses to a virtually limitless amount–340 trillion trillion trillion addresses. IPv6 will allow the Internet to support many more devices by greatly increasing the number of possible addresses.

For those who do not know, just like a phone number helps you communicate with another phone, an IP address (short for Internet Protocol address) is provided to your computer so it can communicate with websites, Internet services, and other devices. IP addresses are numbers that are displayed as strings of letters or numbers, such as 192.0.2.1 (for IPv4) and 2001:db8::1234:ace:6006:1e (for IPv6).

World IPv6 Launch on June 6, 2012, organized by the Internet Society, is the day participating major websites and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) permanently enable IPv6 and begin the transition from IPv4.

The Importance of Mobile Marketing to attract Tourists to Africa

A debate on what industry is most important to sustained growth in Africa can easily be won when you bring up Travel and Tourism. Africa may be rich in oil in some parts, and minerals in others, but it is rich in beauty in all places and is increasingly attracting domestic and international tourists.

It has been mentioned many times that in Africa the majority of the population access the Internet using their mobile phones as there is a huge lack of fixed line Internet connectivity and reliable electricity sources. In most first World countries, accessing the Internet via a mobile device has overtaken accessing it via a Desktop computer, in addition most of these market are using Smartphones and are very comfortable using Mobile Apps.

S.Africa police probe MTN Iran graft allegations

South Africa's elite Hawks police unit has opened an investigation into allegations of corruption at mobile phone giant MTN relating to its purchase of a cellular licence in Iran, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

The police probe follows a $4.2 billion U.S. civil claim filed in March by Turkish operator Turkcell accusing Africa's largest mobile firm of bribing Iranian officials with cash and promises of weapons to secure the licence, which was originally awarded to Turkcell.

"There are allegations of corruption. That's exactly what we're investigating," Hawks spokesman MacIntosh Polela said.

Rocket Internet's Kasuwa.com finally launches today in Nigeria officially

The much awaited online retail store, Kasuwa.com, from Rocket Internet launches today in Nigeria.
We reported in an earlier blog, on the 21st of May, that it would be launching soon.

Kasuwa.com hopes to fill the gap that Nasper's Kalahari.com.ng left after it closed shop late last year.

As part of Kasuwa's launch strategy, it is offering 1500 Naira for new sign-ups and free shipping/delivery.   Good move..  Interestingly, it also intends to offer Cash on Delivery (COD) as part of its winning strategy. Hmm.... I wonder how this will play out since Sim Shagaya of DealDey recently talked about his ordeal with COD, in a recent interview with Drew Hinshaw in "The Wall Street Journal article - In Nigeria, Rising Dreams of Web Commerce", saying that "DealDey's drivers have been ambushed, robbed and, quite frequently, stood up". These delivery people may become targets for robbers. But one way to mitigate that might be not branding the delivery bikes or vans.