Nigerian Government unfolds plans for $15 million ICT venture capital fund

The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson recently revealed plans by the Nigerian government to raise $15 million for the take-off of an ICT venture capital fund. SHe said the fund would be used to finance commercially viable projects proposed by members of the public.

The venture capital fund being set up for the ICT industry is to be anchored by the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), which is expected to commit $3.6 million (N500 million) to the project. The Minister said that the private sector, globally and locally would raise an additional $11.4 million.

She added that "The $15 million will be managed by independent fund managers who would work with the ICT incubation team to identify projects or initiatives that we believe are great ideas that will be commercially successful. We will use those venture capital funds to fund them because there is no collateral. We are taking a risk."  

"We use the capital development fund to fund the development of those ideas until they get commercial viability and basically the reward is when they get commercial viable and you sell them off or you do an initial public offer (IPO) like they do with Facebook and all those companies where the returns go to the investors"

Konga.com expands category offerings to include groceries, office supplies and home appliances

I must say I do admire the Chief Customer Advocate of Konga.com - Sim Shagaya. Well, for those who do not know, he is also the CEO.

As expected, after winning the hearts of his customers by his 24-hour delivery of customer purchases of everyday essentials, he has now added quality groceries, office supplies and home appliances to his offering.

I like the personalised letter (as seen below) to all his customers. This definitely shows he is close to his customers and that he is available to listen to them.

MTN, Nokia and Cherie Blair Foundation partner to support Businesswomen in Nigeria

Akinwale Goodluck (MTN), James Rutherford (Nokia), Cherie Blair and Jawahar Kanjila (Nokia) Courtesy of Linda Ikeji

In any society, entrepreneurs are brave pioneers, taking risks and working hard to break barriers. In Nigeria, it's inspiring to see so many entrepreneurs starting up new businesses in the face of challenges such as unreliable electricity, inadequate infrastructure and insufficient small business investment. Nigeria's GDP grew 6.2% in the first quarter of this year. Women entrepreneurs contribute to this economic rise with 25-30% of Nigeria's registered businesses; however, the important role that women could play has not yet been realised. Women's businesses are largely hidden in the informal economy. They often face additional business challenges to their male counterparts such as accessing loans without collateral, being the major household care giver with less time to focus on their businesses and a lack of control over household income.

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women supports these women entrepreneurs, providing them with a variety of resources and tools to overcome barriers they may encounter. In our published report Mobile Value Added Services: A Business Growth Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs in partnership with the ExxonMobil Foundation, we demonstrated that business barriers in emerging markets can be addressed through the development of targeted mobile phone services. We launched this research at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this year and are now following up on our findings, carrying out recommendations from the report with the mobile technology sector to deliver a service specifically tailored for women business owners in developing and emerging markets.

This week, in partnership with Nokia and MTN Nigeria, we are launching Business Women, a new mobile phone service for women looking to grow their small-scale enterprise in Nigeria. Designed with the experiences of Nigerian women entrepreneurs in mind, the service was developed by international and Nigerian entrepreneurship experts. It provides valuable, bite-size information on business management such as advice on working with traders, how to improve distribution channels, the steps required to register a business in Nigeria and how to tap into valuable business networks. Customers who opt into this service will receive four to five text messages with business tips per week and also have the option of taking a weekly multiple choice quiz to test what they've learned.

We will introduce Business Women in conjunction with a project that provides hands-on business skills training to over 2,000 women entrepreneurs in Nigeria in partnership with the Youth for Technology Foundation. We look forward to charting the progress of the women entrepreneurs who use Business Women and to following this launch with mobile services for women entrepreneurs in Indonesia and Egypt soon.

www.cherieblairfoundation.org

Source: Henriette Kolb, CEO, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in HuffingtonPost

WHO names Nigeria regional hub for herbal drug research

THE African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics’ Innovation (ANDI), an initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has named Nigeria a regional centre of excellence for research and development of phytomedicine.

Nigeria has also been designated the West African hub for the organisation’s research and development work in the West African region.

The National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRID) is the Nigerian organisation specially recognised to act as the centre of excellence and the West African hub.

African Developers at Google I/O 2012

In June 2012, top developers from Sub-Saharan African traveled to San Francisco, California for Google's biggest developer event of the year, I/O. Hear from Nigerian and Ugandan developers on their experiences, and hear their predictions for the growth of the internet ecosystem in the years to come. Learn more at https://developers.google.com

Google achieves 100 per cent mapping target for Nigeria, others

SEARCH giant, Google has announced that it has achieved 100 per cent target in the area of mapping for Nigeria and other African countries.

Wikipedia defines mapping as map-making and often used instead of cartography, stressing that mapping term is also sometimes used for geospatial data collection.

The 100 per cent mapping achievement was disclosed by Google officials at the Regional Conference for super mappers across Africa, which kicked off in Lagos at the weekend, stressing that 100 per cent of Africa was now available on Google Map Maker.

Have you entered for Etisalat Nigeria's mobile Broadband innovation competition?

No doubt Etisalat Nigeria prides itself as a company that is known for innovative products and services. And it really has a track record for innovation in the Nigerian market with such innovative firsts including the first to launch an environmentally-friendly product in Africa, Eco SIM, and first to launch fast & affordable mobile broadband over 3.75G.

Etisalat believes innovation should go beyond improvements in existing products and services, and instead have real valuable social or economic impact to customers.

Ethiopia gets Africa's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Ethiopian Airlines received Africa's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner on Friday, making Ethiopia the only country aside from Japan to operate the innovative aircraft.

"As a continent this shows how much we are making progress as Africans... competing on the global stage and changing our image," Ethiopian Airline CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters at Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport.

The plane arrived from Dulles airport in Washington, DC, home to the largest Ethiopian diaspora population globally.

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines -- Africa's fastest growing carrier -- has purchased ten 787 Dreamliners from Boeing. Each has an official list price of some $207 million, although airlines rarely pay such figures, especially for bulk orders.

Microsoft updates logo after 25 years

In line with the new era in which Microsoft is reimagining how their products can help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential, the Redmond based company is changing its logo after 25 years.

According to Jeff Hansen, General Manager, Brand Strategy, Microsoft in a blog post released today...,

"It’s been 25 years since we’ve updated the Microsoft logo and now is the perfect time for a change. This is an incredibly exciting year for Microsoft as we prepare to release new versions of nearly all of our products. From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs. This wave of new releases is not only a reimagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning.

The Microsoft brand is about much more than logos or product names. We are lucky to play a role in the lives of more than a billion people every day. The ways people experience our products are our most important “brand impressions”. That’s why the new Microsoft logo takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors."

Microsoft started using this new logo on its site, Microsoft.com  – the 10th most visited website in the world and in three Microsoft retail stores in Boston, Seattle’s University Village and Bellevue, Wash.

This is Microsoft's fifth logo since Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company 37 years ago.

Google Takes Internet Access to University of Ibadan

Google Nigeria has announced the launch of ‘Google Apps Supporting Programs’ (GASP) for the University of Ibadan at a ceremony held at the university campus.

The event was attended by principal officers and the management team of the university and its information and communications technology services Department, including the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Isaac Adewole.

The GASP initiative helps increase usage of the Internet and Google Apps in sub-Saharan African universities. With the launch, all students from the university will have access to a lifetime email address stu.ui.edu.ng and up to 25 Giga Byte of storage space.

A Facebook/Blackberry Group Chat adventure totally gone wrong - The story of Cynthia Osokogu

It seemed like a story out of Craigslist in America but it happened here in Nigeria. Initial accounts stated that she befriended some guys on Facebook and she was lured from her university in Nasarawa state, located in central Nigeria to Lagos state, south west of Nigeria where she was raped and murdered.

She was the 24 year old daughter of a retired Major General in the Nigerian Army. She was a post-graduate student of the Nasarawa State University and budding business tycoon.

According to one of the suspects, Echezona Nwabufor, 33, a 300 level Accounting arrested for this dastardly act, He claims ....

“It was a mistake, I never meant to kill her. I invited her from Abuja as my friend on July 21. I was trying to dislodge her by tying her hands and I hit her in the process. I tied her because I did not want her to know I was escaping from the hotel. We had a mutual agreement for her to come over. I met her from BB (blackberry) group chat. She came to buy some things for her boutique in Abuja. We had a disagreement. I did not rape her. It was the devil’s handwork.

2 teams from Sub-Saharan Africa make it to the finals of Google Online Marketing Challenge

Two teams from 2 universities in Ghana and Nigeria made it to the finals of the Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC). The two teams were among the 15 teams in the world that made it to the final. They are -

• Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, Ghana. Team: Maria Meier (Lecturer), Lenny Wosornu, Seth Adinkra, Charles Mensah, and Owusu Achiaw Kwasi

• University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Team: Akomolafe Oladeji (Lecturer), Oladipo Oluwaseyi, Olukayode Didunoluwa Olamide, Oyeside Olalekan, Alagbe Olarenwaju, and Aiyelari Temilolorun

A total of 11,000 students from 86 countries/territories participated in this year’s challenge. With a US$250 budget provided by Google, students were to develop an online advertising strategy for a real business or non-profit organization that had not used AdWords in the last six months. The global winners and their professor are to receive a trip to the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California to meet with the AdWords team. While regional winners and their professor receive a trip to a regional Google office.

Though the African teams reached the regional (Middle East and Africa) finals, the winner came from Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, under Professor Sarit Moldovan. The team of Alex Zhitnitsky, Oshri Rozenheck, and Boris Fridman worked with the Perach Tutoring Project, a mentoring/tutoring program for disadvantaged children.  Click here for more information. 

Better luck next time, African teams.

African companies that made it to the Meffys 2012 final shortlist

It is the most established & coveted global awards for mobile content & commerce. It is the industry’s official benchmark for measuring success and rewarding innovation. It honours the most influential players from around the world. It is judged by expert panels of independent journalists, analysts, academics and VCs.

It is the MEFFYS awards. And it is here again.

Over the years, the industry’s most coveted awards have recognised the global brands, dynamic start-ups and visionary individuals who have helped shape the mobile content & commerce industry.

Rocket Internet: I, formerly known as Kasuwa now wishes to be known as Jumia

Kasuwa.com, the online retail shop has officailly changed its name to Jumia.com.ng. And Jumia will now be selling clothes and accessories just like Kasuwa's sister company Sabunta.com.

I do believe that Sabunta would soon disappear or merge with Jumia.com.ng since it doesn't make sense for them to be competing with one another in the same market.

Changing it from a dot com to a dot com dot ng. also presumes that Jumia would be more favorable as an African brand instead of Kasuwa or Sabunta which were derived from Nigerian languages. Check out the other Jumia sites - Jumia Egypt, Jumia Morocco. (This is akin to Dealfish rebranding to OLX)

This new name may also not be unconnected with the recent joint agreement between Rocket Internet and Millicom International Cellular to jointly develop franchises in the online sector in Latin America and Africa

As least, it was expected that Rocket Internet would exit the market as soon it got a juicy offer. Guess Millicom is the answer.

P.S Don't ask me what Jumia is. I don't know

Update: Kasuwa and Sabunta have merged into one entity - Jumia

Millicom & Rocket Internet to offer online services in Latin America and Africa

Stockholm, August 14, 2012 – Millicom International Cellular S.A. (“Millicom”) (Stockholmsbörsen: MIC) today announces the signing of an agreement with Rocket Internet GmbH (“Rocket Internet”) to jointly develop franchises in the online sector in Latin America and Africa.

Over a four year period, Millicom has the option to gradually acquire controlling stakes in two subsidiaries of Rocket Internet called Latin America Internet Holding (“LIH”) and Africa Internet Holding (“AIH”). LIH and AIH develop and offer services through franchises operating in 5 categories namely e-Commerce (such as “Kanui”), Marketplaces (such as “Airu”), Subscription (such as “YepDoc”), Lead Generation and Payments, in the largest markets in Latin America and Africa. As Millicom has a clearly defined path to control, these businesses will be fully consolidated from closing and reported as a sixth category called Online.

eHealth: INTEL to bail out Nigeria’s health services with digital training

Apparently worried by recent world health report which rated the Nigerian health care delivery system 187th out of its 192 member countries, Global Technology giant, Intel corporation Nigeria has provided a bail out option with free computer training for all key staff of the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi.

Intel says its gesture was a strategic bid to scale up digital healthcare awareness in Nigeria and build capacity for health workers. The training series according to the chip company, was designed to further educate and equip workers to use digital technology in the everyday delivery of healthcare services across Nigerian hospitals.

Intel is however partnering with a medical network firm, Synapses Limited to facilite the training and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi is the first in the series of hospitals that will benefit from the Easy Steps training.

CDMA operators to seal new $200m business revival deal in Nigeria

THE nation’s troubled Code Division Multiple Operators (CDMA) arm of the Nigerian telecommunications sector appeared yesterday to have firmed up a strategic revival option, through a $200 million (N32 billion) business combination deal.

The Guardian learnt that except for last minute change of arrangements, the trio of Multilinks, Starcomms and MTS are wrapping up merger arrangements that would produce a mega CDMA network operator, to be announced any moment from now.

The new network, Guardian learnt, will assume the corporate identity of CAPCOM.

Specifically, the $200 million investment would be injected by core investors into the emerging CAPCOM, raising hopes that the CDMA sub-sector would soon experience a rebirth in the telecommunications market.

It was gathered that the emerging company has as its shareholders, MBC, 53 per cent shares; Middle East Capital Group, 25 per cent shares; while Helios Investment Partners has 11 per cent shares stakes. Others said to hold shares in the company include Oldonyo Laro Estate five per cent; Bridgehouse Capital Limited three per cent; Asset Management Company of Nigeria, two per cent and private equity investors with one per cent.

A senior official at Starcomms, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to The Guardian that the arrangement was on and that it has reached its peak. “Yes, there is arrangement on that and we shall soon come up with more details on that. It is a merger arrangement.”

Efforts by The Guardian to confirm Multilinks’ angle of the story proved abortive, as the Corporate Affairs Manager, Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie was said not to be available.

Poor network hampers e-wallet fertiliser distribution in Cross River

THE Coordinator of the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) in Cross River, Mrs. Ada Edu, said poor network has been affecting e-wallet system of fertiliser distribution in the state.

Edu told the News Agency of Nigeria in Calabar that farmers in most parts of the state were unable to receive text messages due to poor network from telecommunications providers, prompting the authorities to use voucher cards to ensure that farmers get their packages.

“The problem we have in Cross River with e-wallet system is that network is very poor. Some of the farmers do not receive text messages on their phones.

“But we have adopted the system of using voucher cards so that in spite of the constraint in text messages, farmers can still get their packages.

Winners emerge in the 2012 Web-jurist awards

Mr. Folusho Phillips

MTN, GT Bank, Kakawa Discount House and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance have won the overall ‘Best Websites’ in the 2012 Web-jurist independent website assessment.

It was conducted by Phillips Consulting Limited recently. Web-Jurist rating, which is in its tenth year, is an initiative of the technology division of Phillips Consulting Limited to measure the effectiveness of websites in the private sector to ensure continuous enhancement of e-business activities and encourage best web communications practice.

The results which were announced at an event in Lagos, was attended by the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson and key decision makers in the financial services industry, as well as stakeholders of information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

Etisalat introduces its mobile advertising service - Easy Adz

It was bound to happen sooner or later. As usual, once there is a new product or service introduced by a mobile telco, it is bound to be introduced by another telco within a couple of days.

Anyways, it is the norm in the market.  Etisalat has just launched Easy Adz, a mobile advertising service. This is similar to MTN's "mobile ad" which was introduced into the Nigerian market in June 2012.

Listening to Lai Onafowokan of Etisalat Nigeria on 92.3 Inspiration FM this evening, Easy Adz is a permission-based mobile advertising service that enables companies advertise their products and services to potential customers on their mobile phones.  He went on to say that "the service is free to Etisalat subscribers which means that all messages are delivered at no cost to Etisalat subscribers."

Tayo Aderinokun, Mitchell Elegbe, Funke Opeke, Ernest Nnaemeka Azudialu-Obiejesi win Business Leader awards

Four Nigerians won four out of the five awards up for grabs at the All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA) - West Africa regional finals in Lagos, Nigeria recently.

The event  was hosted by CNBC Africa affiliated company ABN Productions and took place at the Porsche Centre in Victoria Island.

Guests included captains of industry and leaders in the private sector. Also in attendance were Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state, who gave the keynote address and Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State.

Various industries submitted nominees who were then shortlisted by the panel of judges made up of Atedo Peterside, chairman of ANAP Foundation; Bismarck Rewane, chief executive officer at Financial Derivatives Company and Frank Nweke Jnr, director general at Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).

Our roots go global: Apply for a RISE Award today

The application for the 2013 Google RISE (Roots in Science and Engineering) Awards is now open. Given once a year, Google RISE Awards are designed to promote and support education initiatives in two key areas: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and Computer Science (CS). Google grants awards of $5,000 - $25,000 USD to organizations around the world working with K-12 and university students in these fields.

This year, our community welcomed more than two dozen organizations from around the world, from Denmark to Uganda and California to Romania. The RISE grants have helped these groups to scale their reach by allowing for more scholarship recipients, to deepen their impact by providing hands on robotics kits, and to ultimately inspire their students by creating a community for CS outreach.

Now, the RISE Awards have expanded to include applicants from Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, bringing our total to six continents and 243 countries. All eligible nations are listed on our website.

The growth of technology is undoubtable, and the impact technology will have on our future is equally undeniable. We believe it’s our duty to support students who have the uncanny ability not only to consume technology, but also to create it. We believe that inspiring the next generation of computer scientists will enrich the lives of not only individual students, but also the communities and countries they live in.

Show us what you can do to get students excited about STEM and CS! Submit your application by September 30, 2012. Awardees will be announced by January 2013.

Source: Google Africa Blog

Get on the Ruby Rails - Co Creation Hub Nigeria

Ruby on Rails is an open-source web framework that is optimized for programmer happiness and sustainable productivity. It let you write beautiful code by favouring convention over configuration. Rails is a full-stack framework, meaning that it gives the Web developer the full ability to gather information from the web server, talking to or querying the database, and template rendering out of the box. As a result, Rails features a routing system that is independent of the Web server.

Basecamp, Twitter, git-hub and Groupon are some of the killer web applications done with Ruby on Rails.

On the 24th of August 2012, Patrick Turley and Craig Wattrus from ThoughtWorks in South Africa will run a day-long a comprehensive introduction to Ruby on Rails at the CcHub.

The aim of the training is to enable serious Nigerian developers get the hang of the framework/language and to build their first Ruby on Rails web application.

Date: 24th August, 2012
Time: 9am – 5pm
Venue: CcHub, 6th Floor, 294 Herbert Macaulay Road, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos

Please come with your laptops and a mind eager to learn.

Attendance is strictly based on registration. To register, click here

About Thoughtworks
ThoughtWorks is a software company. We’re also an amazing collection of humans, hired for our passion, integrity and special powers. The company was founded as a social experiment – what happens when you hire really smart, passionate people and set them loose on really tough problems? 19 years on, this collection of people has helped shape the IT industry. The problem we set ourselves now is to use software to improve humanity – becoming a role model for 21st century socially responsible companies.

ThoughtWorks Africa is our latest dream. We have done some work in Sub-Saharan Africa for DataWinners and OpenMRS as part of our Social Impact Program, but our idea is to build a business providing technology consulting services to the local market, based out of Johannesburg. We welcome a Pan-African spirit and amazing human beings to help build our presence while expanding our consciousness.

Seriously......!? MTN offering an aeroplane as a promo prize?

When I first saw it, I thought it was a joke. But then I heard it on radio this week on 2 different radio stations, I was amusingly confused. But it is true. It is MTN Ultimate Wonder.

Why would MTN offer a brand new aeroplane as prize for buying phone credit? Is it for real or a marketing gimmick? Who is the target market? Do they now have too much money that they don't know what to do with it? The promo says you can win a brand new aeroplane if you recharge with a minimum of N3,000.00 over the period of the promo - (10 August to 31 October 2012).

If you check the terms and conditions, you would see that the aeroplane or airplane is a Cessna 182T. The current cost of a Cessna 182T (2012) is about $400,000 (N64 million). So I guess this is chicken feed when compared to what MTN Nigeria made in revenues last year. MTN Nigeria raked in N749 billion revenues in 2011.

Was the Samsung Galaxy Note an experiment? Why is the next version of the Note a departure?

When the Samsung Galaxy Note was launched in Nigeria in December 2011, the Regional Director HHP, Samsung Electronics West Africa Nigeria Mr. Fady Khatib said and I quote

“the Galaxy Note is a new concept in the Smartphone world; it is a TabletSmartphone. This new category is created by Samsung and it falls in between tablets and smartphones. It has all the benefits of a tablet with the freedom and functionalities of a Smartphone."

In an earlier blog, I just said that the only thing that I liked about it was the Stylus - S Pen - and I bought it.

Well I guess the experiment didn't work as Samsung is set to release the next Samsung Galaxy Note (the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1) and it is a departure from the concept of the device being in between the tablet and the smartphone. Apart from the addition of Samsung software that allows you to put the S Pen to task scribbling out quick annotations, taking screenshots, and editing photos, among other things, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is not different from the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Well it certainly is not a phone. The Galaxy Note 10.1 is said to be outfitted with the functionality and precision of a pen and paper on a 10.1-inch-large-display, providing endless possibilities to elevate a user's creativity and productivity. 

Featuring an intuitive user experience and armed with superior hardware performance, Galaxy Note 10.1 is designed to simplify idea capturing, information access, and multi-tasking, making each easier and faster.

Take a look at the YouTube video released today (6th of August, 2012) by Samsung and tell me what you think.

By the way, What am I expected to do when I get tired of my Samsung Galaxy Note?

African Farmers to Get Mobile Phone Help "Farm to Fork"

In Africa, farming has also gone out of fashion – it’s hard work with little pay. Millions of young men and women have moved into overcrowded cities seeking better work and instead end up living in slums. The President of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa(AGRA), Dr. Namaga Ngongi commented on this situation in March at a conference in Ghana:

"If young people living in rural areas do not find enough incentives, profitable economic opportunities and attractive environments in which to live and work, they will continue to migrate to cities in large numbers and the opportunity to attract a steady flow of investments to transform Africa’s agricultural sector will be missed.

This trend would not only contribute to the mega urbanisation and growing urban unemployment that is already under way, but could also affect global food production. Who will then feed the global population that is projected to reach 9.2 billion people by 2050?”

To help this situation Africa Rural Connect – an online global collaboration network run by the National Peace Corps Association – recently ran a contest to help support those who are making farming more profitable and attractive in Africa.

The $5,000 Grand Prize – announced today – went to Backpack Farm: Africans Feeding Africa for their project ” KUZA Doctor: A Farmer’s Mobile Toolkit from Farm to Fork.” The program will be the first mobile tool in Kenya made to assist smallholder farmers in managing their production from ‘farm to fork.’ It will “support farmers using the most basic mobile phones with critical knowledge to increase their rates of production and subsequent incomes while learning the value of local biodiversity and conservation farming.” The prize will support the launch of the project’s smart phone android application with a field trial to launch in October.

Read more from Forbes Africa

Safaricom Bids To Loosen Vodafone’s Grip On M-Pesa Earnings

Kenyan telecom operator, Safaricom is set to increase profit on M-Pesa with the renegotiation of the popular mobile money platform’s procurement agreement with its parent company Vodafone.

Safaricom, which operates M-Pesa, a fast-growing mobile money transaction service in Kenya, with over 14.9 million active users, on a license from Vodafone Sales and Services Ltd (VSSL) pays a 25 percent licence fee under an agreement.

The Kenyan teleco also pays at least 10 percent of revenue from M-Pesa, whether the venture is making profits or not.

Apple officially enters the Nigerian market

Apple Incorporated has finally announced its official entry into Nigeria’s highly competitive mobile device market. The smartphone maker, with reported revenue of $108 billion in 2011, at the weekend appointed four authorised resellers in Nigeria.

The resellers are: iConnect (Lagos), Meed Networks (Abuja), Orchard (Lagos) and Cross-Energy Supply (Abuja) - all fully equipped and positioned to provide customers with best-in-class service support. Apple is banking on its extended market presence and an increasing demand for smartphones to increase its market share in Nigeria and Africa generally.

For years now, Apple devices have been sold in the Nigerian market through unauthorised channels. Taryn Hyam, corporate communications manager, Southern Africa for Apple told Business Day in an interview, that Nigeria was a vital market for the firm in Africa. According to her, Apple Incorporated was engaged in discussions to further expand its distribution network in Nigeria, enabling more customers’ access world-class service delivery. “We want to provide the world-class support to our customers.

Etisalat teams up with Opera Software in Nigeria

Subscribers can now enjoy the world’s best mobile browsing experience

Etisalat and Opera Software are providing an even better mobile web experience to consumers in Nigeria, with Etisalat offering a co-branded Opera Mini browser. The bundles come in two flavors — Sport and Social — available to all of its over 13 million Nigerian customers. Already more than 200 million people around the world use Opera’s mobile browsers each month.

The days of mobile phones simply being for calls and texting are long gone, and operators are already offering more types of content, including streaming media, video, entertainment, maps and gaming, as well as a host of other useful apps and tools.

Naspers buys out Romania’s biggest online retailer

Looks like Naspers didn’t waste much time on making good on its promised Eastern European expansion plans. The emerging markets media and internet giant has acquired a 70% stake in Romania’s largest online retailer.

According to Romania-Insider, the value of the deal has not been made public, but some estimates have it at around the EUR100-million (US$123-million) mark.

Introducing Buttermilk Sky, the Nigerian dwarf goat that has its own Facebook page and over 2million views on YouTube

Couldn't resist this when I came across this Internet Phenom. He..he..he.

Introducing Buttermilk Sky, the Nigerian dwarf goat with over 2.1million views on Youtube (uploaded 5 days ago) and a Facebook page with over 1000 likes. Yes, it is true. Check it out yourself. See below for the YouTube video and click here for the goat's Facebook page.



Well the Nigerian goat does not live in Nigeria, it is in diaspora. I don't think it will be visiting Nigeria again o.

NCC, Lagos govt dialogue on telecom masts

THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the Lagos State Government at the weekend fine-tuned fresh plans by the state to regulate masts and towers.

The commission had earlier kicked against new plans by the state to impose annual levy on all existing telecoms masts in the state, and asked the government to put a stop to the sealing and pulling down of telecoms masts in the name of regulation.

The Head, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department of the Commission, Maska Ubale, gave the advice in Lagos at a stakeholder’s meeting that involved the NCC, telecoms operators and the Lagos State Government, represented by the Urban Furniture Regulatory Unit (UFRU) that was mandated to regulate masts and towers in the state.

Ubale, who led the NCC team, spoke on the implications of imposing annual levy on telecoms masts and the impending danger in sealing and pulling down masts.

He said that action if not checked may lead to disruption in telecoms services, since a single Base Transceiver Station (BTS), is connected to over 30 others in various locations.

While advising that sealing and pulling down of masts should be the last resort, he said that caution must be taken to avoid regulations that will discourage core investors in the telecoms business in the country.

Confiscated equipment
“UFRU should see telecoms operators as partners in business and avoid regulations that will hinder their business in the state,” Maska said, while advising the agency to return all confiscated equipment from telecoms sites to enable operators provide better service quality to Nigerians.

Earlier in his response, the General Manager of UFRU, Mr. Joe Igbokwe while thanking NCC for its intervention said dialogue and constructive engagement is the way to go since dialogue is better than monologue.

According to him, the Lagos State Government was insisting on regulating installation of masts and towers in Lagos in order to save lives and property.

“Lives have been lost and property worth billions destroyed in the past twelve years and no responsible government will fold its hands in the face of these tragedies. Besides, the indiscriminate installation of these structures tells a big story that there is lack of organization,” Igbokwe added.

According to him, “The Lagos State Government is aware that there are technical specifications from NCC with respect to installation of masts and towers anywhere in Nigeria but there is need for the state to regulate the installation of these structures.

“The builders need construction permit from the state. We need to check the integrity of their structures from time to time, we need to see their maintenance plans, we need to tell them that these structures are not built to last forever.’’

Source: The Vanguard

Nigeria's Global Innovation Index ranking drops from 96 to 123.

The 2012 Global Innovation Index ranking released recently shows that Nigeria dropped from 96 (2010, 2011 position) to 123 (2012 position). Nigeria is ranked 123rd (113th among GII 2011 countries), down from 96th in 2011. The loss of 17 positions compared with 2011 was the result both of worsening performances on key indicators and of the effect of adjustments to the GII framework. This populous lower-middle income country (the most populated in the region) continues to show a relative strength on the side of the innovation results, ranked 102nd on the Output Sub-Index and 17th on the efficiency ratio (after being in the top 10 in 2011). Its main strengths are in Market sophistication (91) and Creative outputs (76).

Deutshe Welle trying to use Africa's mobile phone boom to spread nes by new means

As the fastest-growing mobile market on the planet, Africa is facing huge opportunities — and distinct challenges — in news dissemination.

By the end of the year, it’s estimated that more than three-quarters of the population will be cell phone subscribers, including in places where literacy rates are low and electricity is unavailable. To better serve that demographic, German media giant Deutsche Welle is using over-the-phone voice technology to deliver news.

No Internet access necessary: Just dial a number to access the program Learning by Ear, an educational show for teenagers that mixes news and explainers having to do with health, politics, the economy, the environment, and social issues.

ITU, Nexpedience team up to boost African broadband

Geneva, 02 August 2012 – ITU and Nexpedience, one of the world's leading suppliers of proprietary point-to-multipoint broadband infrastructure, are partnering to bring broadband access to Africa.

Under the terms of the deal, Nexpedience will provide 180 new Expedience base stations worth USD 1 million, to be deployed in six nations across the continent. The first nation to benefit from the new infrastructure is Burundi, with deployments also planned for Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Mali, Rwanda and Swaziland.

Designed to withstand extreme meteorological conditions and capable of providing up to 32 kilometres of sector coverage, Nexpedience’s base stations have been specifically designed for rural deployment.

ITU’s Wireless Broadband Network in Africa project aims to develop and implement wireless broadband connectivity and applications that will provide free or low-cost digital access for schools, hospitals, and under-served populations in rural and remote areas Africa-wide.

Want money to launch and grow innovative solutions in Africa? Check out the GIST Tech-I Competition

About GIST:

The Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) initiative forges links at the individual and institutional levels among technology entrepreneurs, angel investors, and the marketplace to improve quality of life through economic prosperity.

The GIST initiative builds entrepreneurial ecosystems in 43 countries across the Middle East, Central and South East Asia, and Africa by identifying, coaching, and funding the most promising entrepreneurs through its competitions, start-up acceleration services, online social media platform and interactive mentorship programs. The GIST Initiative is implemented by CRDF Global and funded by the U.S. Department of State.