World Bank To Spend $5billion On 27 Development Projects in Nigeria

Ms Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly

Last week, The World Bank said it would spend five billion dollars (about N785 billion) on 27 projects across Nigeria in the next five years.

The Country Director, Ms Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, dropped the hint at a one-day ``Job Shadow Workshop’’, organised by Junior Achievers Nigeria, a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO).

She said, ``On the average, we are providing money in the range of 1.3 billion dollars to 1.5 billion dollars in a year and what we have now is a stock of projects.’’

Marie-Nelly said 60 per cent of the total amount would be spent on sustainable development projects, including infrastructure, construction and rehabilitation, energy, water and agriculture.

Altech realigns its East African Network Interests; Transfers to Liquid Telecom

The Altech Group (Altech) has concluded the realignment of its East African network interests by injecting them into a strategic partnership with Liquid Telecommunications Holdings (Liquid), a highly successful telecommunications group operating in southern Africa.

This partnership will enable Altech to put to an end the losses being incurred in East Africa and will result in Altech acquiring a strategic minority interest in Liquid. In turn, it will significantly expand Liquid’s networking footprint and create the largest single fibre network in Africa, spanning Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho and South Africa.

Swissclear Global’s New Airtime Recharge Service now available in Africa

Swissclear Global, a Singapore-based service provider recently announced the launch of its air-time recharge offering in some African countries, namely Egypt, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. With this launch, this makes the service now available in 70 countries, across 200 mobile operators, 3 billion people.

The service is simple and easy to use. Customers can log on to www.swissclearglobal.com and simply type the recipient’s phone number, pick a payment method and complete the transaction. Top-up is almost instant! For convenience, a wide variety of denominations are offered, ranging from US$5 to US$50. Users can recharge their own mobile or send airtime to loved ones from the convenience of their home or a nearby retail outlet.

Alicia Keys is Blackberry's new Global Creative Director

Blackberry's CEO Thorsten Heins and Alicia Keys

Yes, it is true. Alicia Keys, the Grammy Award winning singer, has been appointed as the New Global Creative Director for Blackberry. CEO, Thorsten Heins announced this today at the Blackberry 10 launch event.

The Myth Of Nigerian Mobile Payments Monopoly

Tunde Lemo

“The unbanked have been unbanked for a very long time and there is a reason why they remain that way. Banks have been around for centuries and there is a reason why they don’t have everyone as customers”

The statement above was made by a speaker at the recent Mobile Money Connected World event in Dubai. It sparked a lot of debate between bankers and non-bankers like me and it was a healthy debate where everyone gained some knowledge and insight into each other’s industry.

Tunde Lemo, a Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has excellent credentials and has had my respect for a long time especially when he was brought into the CBN at a time when banking was being ruined by bureaucrats who were out of touch with the industry they were regulating. He has done well for his primary constituency “the banking industry” and continues to do well for them by protecting them against impostors like the telcos and others.

Research In Motion (RIM) changes name to Blackberry; Launches new OS and new devices (Q10 and Z10)

RIM CEO Thirsten Heins introducing the Q10 and Z10 today                             (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

At its BlackBerry 10 launch event today, Research In Motion (RIM) unveiled its new name - Blackberry, new operating system, and 2 new devices - the Q10 and the Z10. RIM is adopting the name of its famous product, Blackberry, and will trade under the BBRY ticker on Nasdaq, and BB on TSX.

DealDey generated N40m ($253,000) in December 2012

It seems DealDey, a GroupOn clone in Nigeria, is growing stronger in the Nigerian market when GroupOn is struggling globally.

In a recent blog post by Jason Njoku about his discussion with Sim Shagaya (Owner of Dealdey and Konga), it was mentioned that DealDey's Gross Revenue to date (December 2012) is over N200Mn ($1.27Mn) since launch in April 2011 and they closed out a blockbuster 2012 with N40Mn ($253,000) generated in Dec alone.

Jason had the opportunity to speak with Sim at an investor forum. iROKO actually share an investor with DealDey, Kinnevik AB, the €7Bn Swedish based investment holding company.

iROKOtv Launches Mobile App on Nokia Lumia Windows Phone

iROKOtv, the world’s largest online distributor of Nigerian movies, recently announced the launch of a brand new mobile app for the platform, in an exclusive partnership with Nokia. The app has been designed to give Nollywood fans and iROKOtv PLUS subscribers access to Nollywood movies on the go, and will be accessible on the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8. It is being offerred free for the first three months, when users sign up

Adibeli Nduka-Agwu, Head of Business Development for iROKO Partners, Africa, said: “The iROKOtv app is a fantastic addition to the 'Nokia Collections within the Widows Phone Store'. Content is king, access is key and this app encapsulates this perfectly; awesome content, available on-demand, accessible on a mobile phone. Nollywood at your fingertips, wherever you are.

Lagos Business School Partners LASG on Megacity Project

Lagos Business School (LBS) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Lagos State Government (LASG) on a project to make Lagos a model mega city for Africa.  The MOU was signed this week by Dean of LBS, Dr Enase Okonedo and the Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Raji Fashola at the Governor’s office.  

The agreement was entered into as a result of both parties recognising the need to drive the competitiveness of Lagos. 

According to Dr Okonedo, there has been an awakened interest in Africa for big businesses, so it becomes imperative to make Lagos attractive for investment and safe for the people who live in it. 

“We are very pleased to contribute to the development efforts of Lagos State.  Beyond the name we share, we also share in the aspirations to make Lagos Africa’s model mega city”, she said. 

Dr Enase Okonedo (LBS) signing MOU with Governor Raji Fashola

The Centre for Competitiveness and Strategy (CCS), a new research centre established in LBS, will function as a knowledge partner of the LASG in the area of competitiveness to help provide insight that would drive policy actions towards this goal. 

The Centre, which is headed by LBS faculty and Director of Research Dr Tunji Adegbesan, also aims to become Africa's foremost knowledge hub for information on competitiveness and strategy. 

GSB Cape Town only African University in Top 100 of 2013 FT Global MBA Ranking

The Graduate School of Business at The University of Cape Town, South Africa is the only African University ranked in the recently published 2013 Financial Times Global MBA Ranking. However it dropped to the 74th in 2013 from the 54th position in 2012.

For the first time in eight years, Harvard Business School topped the rankings, ousting its biggest rival, Stanford Graduate School of Business.

MBA programmes are assessed according to alumni career progression, their international exposure, diversity of students and teaching staff, and the quality of faculty and research.

The top 10 in the recent ranking is shown below.

Microsoft launches Office 2013 Later Today

According to Microsoft Office Twitter account, it is all set to launch its latest Office suite today. It had been rumoured since quite some time that the launch was around the corner. The tweet also indicates that the unveiling will happen at New York's Bryant Park. Additionally, there is also a new landing page on the Office 365 website that mentions "More time to do the things you want", along with the hash tag #timeto365.

Microsoft Office 2013 is known to be more cloud-based, as even the default save location for a document is SkyDrive for a user logged in to one's account. It will be available in boxed retail editions as Home & Student, Home & Business, Professional, and Professional Plus.

New features include a new read mode in Microsoft Word, a presentation mode in Microsoft PowerPoint and improved touch and inking in all of the Office programs. Microsoft Word can also insert video and audio from online sources as well as the capability to broadcast documents on the Web. Word and PowerPoint also have bookmark-like features which sync the position of the document between different computers.

Kenya begins construction of Konza - Africa's Silicon Savannah

Konza - Africa's Silicon Savannah

Konza is dubbed "Africa's Silicon Savannah" and it is set to be one of the most successful cities in Africa, competing economically and culturally with the best cities in the world.

It is hoped that Konza Technology City will promote Business Processing Outsourcing and Information Technology Enabled Services (BPO/ITES) industries for wealth and employment creation. The target is to create over 20,000 BPO/ITES jobs in the Medium Term Period (2015) and over 100,000 by the year 2030 while sustaining an annual GDP growth rate of 10% over the next 18 years.

What kind of Job did Jenifa get on Jobberman?

When I first heard that Funke Akindele's "Jenifa" was selected as a brand ambassador for Jobberman, I had mixed feelings.

I really do love Funke Akindele as an actress but I was curious to know whether "Jenifa" represents the market that Jobberman was targetting or should be targetting.

As I watched the first ad released (as shown below), I asked myself "Was it a wise choice to use Jenifa?"  What kind of job did "Jenifa" get on Jobberman? What kind of people will be attracted to Jobberman by this ad? So many questions.

Watch and tell me what you think? Comments will be appreciated.

Farmers in Burkina Faso get IITA improved cowpea varieties

Burkina Faso has released two improved cowpea varieties to help advance better nutrition for women and children, and boost the incomes of farmers.

The two varieties, IT99K-573-2-1 and IT98K-205-8, were developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and have undergone participatory varietal selection with farmers in the central and northern region of Burkina Faso. Local farmers and researchers selected the varieties from a basket of options after a two-year trial, thanks to funds from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).

The varieties being selected are early maturing and high yielding and are also resistant to Striga—a parasitic weed that limits the yield of cowpea.

“These varieties mature in about 60 days as opposed to local varieties that mature in about 80-90 days,” says Dr Haruki Ishikawa, IITA Project Coordinator for the Appropriate Varieties of Early maturing Cowpea for Burkina Faso (AVEC-BF) project.

Kenyan Govt. partners with NaiLab for Tech Business Incubation

Sam Gichuru

In its aim to grow its ICT sector and become one the top 10 ICT hubs in the world, the Kenyan government recently launched a $1.6 million public-private sector partnership with NaiLab to create a Tech Business Incubation program that supports Kenyan ICT startups.

“The idea was to create a business incubator in Nairobi whose main role was to stimulate innovation, provide a space for these ideas to be worked on with little financial strain as possible and provide the appropriate guidance necessary to do so.” says NaiLab founder Sam Gichuru

According to Gichuru, “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. With this Tech Business Incubation program, we can upscale our ambition and support more ICT startups. It is our ambition to create the next generation of successful ICT companies of Kenya.”

Jim Ovia Foundation initiates "Prize for Excellence" for startups in Nigeria

Dr Chris Uwaje, President of ISPON

The Jim Ovia Foundation in ICT has unveiled an initiative to assist software start-ups in Nigeria with the aim of attracting Nigerian youths into digital entrepreneurship.

The Initiative "Prize for Software Excellence" is in conjunction with the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON); and in the words of Dr. Chris Uwaje, the President of ISPON, it is the  most ambitious ICT knowledge initiative to date.

The foundation said the plan was to resolve the missing link in the nation’s knowledge capacity development space. It also added that the prize was aimed at stimulating software capacity development among Nigerian youths.

Dr. Uwaje explained that the initiative had been designed to recognise and mentor the best software start-up of the year” and ensured that Nigeria became a force to reckon with in the global software development-entrepreneurship landscape.

He also said that the maiden edition of the prize, established to recognise the ‘Best Software Start-up of the Year’ 2012, would be held during the 2013 ISPON President’s Dinner.

Nigerian Activists Google Map Abuja (Capital City)

Volunteers learn how to upload information onto Google Maps at a training session in Abuja on January 26, 2013.

More than 100 young Nigerians are teaming up with Google to add restaurants, markets, hospitals and other prominent locations in the Nigerian capital to Google Maps. Youth leaders say by mapping their city, they could boost the local economy by attracting tourists and investors. They also see maps as a tool to improve security and reduce poverty.

In a training room in Abuja, there are almost as many laptops and smart phones as there are 20-something “citizen cartographers.” At the front of the room, young men who volunteer for Internet search engine Google wear green and blue tee shirts that say, “map your world,” while the Google Abuja Map-up project director, Oludotun Babayemi, explains how to do it.

Rocket Internet prepares to launch Jumia in Kenya

Jumia is Rocket Internet's Online Retail business in Africa. According to Venture Village, Rocket Internet is preparing to open a new branch of Jumia, its Amazon copycat in the MENA region, in Kenya.  So far, there’s only a pre-launch site in place and a Facebook page, established January 15.

This will be Rocket Internet's second venture in Kenya after hellofood, the online food ordering business.

Keeping abreast of Internet Scams and Online fraud

With the advent of the internet, fraud also came in a different form - Internet scam or Online fraud. Our post on Internet Scam Statistics shows that it is on the increase.

Out of the very many initiatives that exist to keep abreast of the latest Internet Scams, there are two I would like to inform you about.

The first is from Nigeria, which is erroneously referred as a Internet Scam Capital. See Internet Scam Statistics to show you the true picture. It is an initiative from Co-Creation hub (CcHub), Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space designed to be a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyze creative social tech ventures take place.

CcHub developed Wayopedia (pronounced Wah-Yo!-Pee-Dia), a crowd-sourced repository of scam keywords and phrases, in a bid to create an intelligent scam email identification system. (And for those who don't know, wayo is a Nigeria term for scam.) The team aims to train WayoPedia into an intelligent repository able to identify words and phrases used by humans to deceive. The repository now has over 2000 words and phrases captured such as initial deposit, beneficiary, bank, inheritance and western union. The team has gone further to publish a weekly online digest "Wayopedia Weekly" which details online scams around the world.

Internet Scam Statistics - Scam is on the increase

As with any innovation, there are good uses and bad uses. The Internet is also one innovation that has helped modern civilisation. It has also increased the rate at which fraud is perpetuated globally.

Most people have heard about online scams or internet fraud. But how much do you know about online fraud or scams? Do you know that online fraud is on the increase?

An infographic (posted below) was published in 2012 by BackgroundCheck.org that provides us with a great deal of statistics related to internet scams and fraud.

Dell Introduces Windows 8 Tablets, Ultrabooks Into Nigerian Market

Dell Inc., in partnership with Microsoft and Intel Nigeria, recently introduced its touch-enabled Windows 8 XPS PCs into the Nigerian market with a view to providing a more intuitive computing experience and addressing evolving customer desires.

The new products include the XPS 12 convertible Ultrabook which delivers stunning design and outstanding productivity, XPS 10 tablet, Latitude 10 tablet, Inspiron 15z Ultrabook, Latitude 6430u Ultrabook, OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One with touch, XPS One 27 with touch and Precision brands.

With these products, Dell aims to free customers from carrying multiple devices, helping them save time and be more productive.

Speaking at the launch event, Dell’s Client Product Marketing Manager, Anglophone East and West Africa, Annie Odo-Effiong stated that the firm was determined with to help customers touch the future with a refreshed portfolio of business and consumer PCs built for Microsoft Windows 8.

Standards Organisation of Nigeria to embark on Electronic Product Registration

Dr. Joseph Odumodu, DG, SON

Last Wednesday, Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria SON, Dr. Joseph Odumodu  said that his organization will soon embark on electronic product registration in Nigeria.

According to him, all products in the Nigeria market will be expected to have electronic registration code for easy identification of both the manufacturer as well as the importer.

He said that any product that does not carry SON electronic code by May 2013 will be removed from the market and destroyed.

At a media interactive session yesterday Odumodu said “Every product in Nigeria market is expected to been documented. We must know who the manufacturers are, who imported the products and the relationship between the importer and the manufacturer.

We have completed the first 50% of the tenure of this current Director General and to examine what has been achieved, we set to access our performance and improving on the weakness so far.

Co-Creation Hub launches Efiko Mobile Application for Schools in Nigeria

Co-Creation Hub, Nigeria’s foremost social innovation centre in Nigeria, launched the EFIKO Mobile Application. The launch took place at the Co-Creation Hub in Yaba, Lagos and included an award ceremony for students who excelled using the platform during its pilot test in Lagos. With sponsorship support from Samsung Electronics West Africa, each winner from the pilot test received a Samsung Chief Hero E1500 mobile phone which they can use to download the EFIKO Mobile Application.

EFIKO is a mobile social quiz platform designed to enhance learning through self-assessment with topical quizzes tied to the National School Curriculum. EFIKO is available on multiple platforms such as Android, Nokia S40 and mobile web for other mobile devices (www.efiko.com.ng) and for download from the Samsung Apps and Google Play stores.

EFIKO was conceptualized and developed at Tech-In-Education (www.tech-in.org), a 48-hour gathering of ideas, people and digital tools aimed at creating novel web & mobile solutions to improve learning at primary and secondary school levels in Nigeria run by the Co-Creation Hub (www.cchubnigeria.com) in February 2012. The Team behind EFIKO came first at the end of the competition and since then has been working towards releasing the product to the market.

Jumia introduces New Category - Wine, Beer and Spirits

Jumia has just introduced a new category to cater for those who seek wine, beer and spirits.

According to Jumia, "This section is heaven for those in all spectrums of alcohol enjoyment. You can be an absolute newbie or a seasoned mixologist and feel at home when shopping for new or familiar beverages because we bring you only the best."

To see the list of available products in this category, click here.

Intel launches its Yolo Smartphone in Africa through the Safaricom network

Intel Yolo Smartphone

Yesterday, Kenya's leading Mobile phone Network, Safaricom announced the Yolo™ Smartphone, the first Smartphone for Africa with Intel Inside®.

The device is aimed at the growing number of cost-conscious and first-time buyers in Kenya who do not want to sacrifice device performance or user experience for cost. The Yolo Smartphone will be sold in Safaricom shops countrywide at the entry price of Kshs. 10,999 and comes bundled with free 500 MB data.

The phone is based on Intel's latest Smartphone platform for emerging markets, launched earlier this month at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). With Intel Inside, users of the Yolo Smartphone are assured of fast Web browsing, impressive multimedia capabilities and a great Android* applications experience.

"We're redefining what cost-conscious Kenyans can expect from a Smartphone," said Peter Arina, general manager, Safaricom' s Consumer Business Unit. "The Intel-based Yolo Smartphone strikes a unique balance between price and performance – we consider it to be a real breakthrough. It's great news that Kenya will be the launch country in Africa for Smartphones with Intel Inside and we expect a great reception from our customers."

Nigeria: NCC mandates N4 for off-net SMS; Effective February 5, 2013

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), recently mandated N4 per message for all domestic Off-Net Short Messaging Service (SMS), with effect from Feb. 5.

According to a statement made available to The Daily Times newspaper by Josephine Amuwa, the Director, Legal and Regulatory Services of the Commission, this had been communicated to the operators since January 3, adding that it would, however, not place a price cap on international SMS.

This was due to operators’ argument that Interconnect rates for International SMS are outside their control as it is terminated through international carrier service providers in various jurisdictions.

``There was a general recognition that the cost of SMS is too high, especially in view of the interconnection rate of N1.02 for SMS as determined by the Commission in 2009.

``In accordance with the powers conferred on the Commission under Sections 4 and Chapter V11 of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003, the Commission hereby sets a price cap of N4 for Off-net SMS.

The new rate shall be implemented within 30 days from the date of the directive, `` Amuwa said.

Win in the 7th Toyota Dream Car Art Contest - Nigerian edition

Toyota 7th Dream Car Art Contest

The "Toyota Dream Car Art Contest" is intended to create opportunities for children throughout the world to develop their interest in cars and help them feel the joy and importance of having a dream through drawing pictures of their dream cars.

Guiness Nigeria unveils world's largest Jersey

                                           World's Largest Jersey          Courtesy: Bella Naija

Guinness Nigeria Plc on Monday unveiled the world’s largest jersey in the colours of Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles, at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.

The unveiling is part of the company’s efforts to drum up support for the Eagles at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

The jersey, with a size of 275.5 by 249.9 square meters, is the largest jersey in football history.

Twitter Launches Video-Sharing App - Vine

Today, Twitter launched a new mobile video-sharing app called Vine. The app is available for the iPhone and it allows Twitter users to capture short videos that can then be embedded directly into tweets on Twitter’s website. 

The videos appear directly beneath the text of a tweet in users’ timelines and they begin playing automatically when a tweet is expanded. Vine is available immediately for free on the iPhone — it can be downloaded here — and Twitter said it is working to bring the app to other mobile platforms soon.

Full features include:

• Unlimited uploads and free
• Instantly post videos on Vine, then share to Twitter and Facebook (more coming soon!)
• Find, follow, and interact with people close to you
• Explore trending posts, featured hashtags and editor’s picks

Vine Labs, Inc. was purchased by Twitter in 2012. 

Temple Run 2 now available; Surpasses 20 million downloads on iOS in 4 days

It is the much anticipated sequel to Temple Run 1.

Imangi Studios, the creators of the hit game Temple Run, released a sequel to its popular Indiana Jones-esque runner game on Apple’s App Store last week.

Temple Run 2 features the same gameplay as its predecessor, however it includes a new environment, better graphics and performance, and more power ups and achievements. The game has been well received by iOS users, currently holding a four star rating, and has been downloaded more than 20 million times, 6 million within the first 24 hours, in just four days. 

For context, Angry Birds Space was downloaded 10 million times in less than three days across multiple operating systems. Imangi’s original game has been downloaded more than 170 million times on iOS and Android

Temple Run 2 is available now on the App Store (click here to download) and is slated to arrive on Android this week.

Orange Money provides International remittances in Mali

Orange and MFS Africa today announced the addition of Mali to the growing portfolio of countries able to receive international remittances via Orange Money Transfer International (OMTI).

Orange Money customers in Mali can now receive international remittances directly to their Orange Money accounts.

MFS Africa is the technology provider and operational partner for the service.

OMTI was originally launched in 2012. The service is designed to facilitate international remittances and extend the benefits of Orange Money to the Diaspora community in France and beyond. To send money to friends and relatives in Mali, customers simply register on the OMTI portal, www.orangemoneyonline.com, pay with most major bank cards, and remit the funds. The service offers fast and secure delivery at an affordable price, directly to the beneficiary's mobile phone. Beneficiaries don't need to be registered for Orange Money when the money is sent. In such events, Orange Mali contacts the beneficiary to arrange for an Orange Money account to receive the funds.

Nextbook 7GP Android Tablet from eFun at CES 2013

This piece was contributed by a guest blogger, Maria Benson on the Nextbook 7GP Android Tablet.

There is a plethora of tablets PCs on the market. One of the best ones is the Nextbook 7GP. This is a new cost effective solution to the more expensive tablets that are currently on the market. It comes with many of the perks that are found with the high-end tablets for a much lower price. This is how E Fun hopes to capture the attention of potential tablet buyers.

Dimensions and Cost

The Nextbook 7GP Android Tablet has been labelled as a budget-friendly tablet. This has impressed lots of consumers. This tablet fits the norm for the popular tablets like the iPad Mini and the Kindle at 7 inches. This is perfect for people that want to watch their favourite movies or play games. The 1024 X 600 pixels provide a great resolution for all of this.

Nigeria: Have you tried the MTN Collect SMS?

Have you tried the MTN Collect SMS? It is basically MTN's version of Call Collect.

With the new MTN Collect SMS, you can now stay in touch no matter what. This service allows MTN customers with low airtime, or those who do not want to pay for sending a particular text message, to send an SMS to another MTN customer free of charge. The receiver however, must accept charges for the inbound message.

Indian designer creates Smartphone for the blind

An Indian designer is developing a Smartphone with tactile text that can be used by blind or visually impaired people.

Sumit Dagar's prototype Braille Smartphone is expected to be ready by the end of February and the first model could be on the market within a year.

Dagar, who won a US$50,000 2012 Rolex Award for Enterprise in November to develop the Smartphone, says that design can help technology bridge the gap between people with disabilities and the rest of the population.

Dagar's partners in the five-year Smartphone project, which started in 2009, are the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and eye health centre the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), India.

He is working with a four-member team comprising experts from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, New York University in the United States, India's National Institute of Design and the LVPEI.

BlackBerry App World Web Storefront now becomes BlackBerry World

Research in Motion (RIM) has changed the Blackberry App World Web Storefront to Blackberry World. The naming change reflects a shift in the type of things you can purchase from the store as RIM transits to BlackBerry 10 and beyond.

BlackBerry World will have much more than just apps – it will now be home to Videos and Music as well. BlackBerry World is going to be the one-stop shop for all of your mobile entertainment needs.

Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman visits Lagos; Talks about IT for growth

Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos State and Eric Schmidt of Google

Last weekend, Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman was in Lagos State, Nigeria and paid a courtesy call to Governor Fashola. He had talks about the use of Information Technology to drive growth in various sectors of the economy

The meeting which held at the State House, Marina had several government officials and members of the Google team in attendance.

Want to follow the AFCON 2013 on your mobile phone?

Do you want to follow the AFCON 2013 commentary on your Nokia phone?

Click here to download the app.

The AFCON 2013 Mobile App gives unique and innovative coverage for the 2013 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations. The app provides never seen before real-time live commentary of the African Cup on mobile devices for people on the move.

AFCON 2013 Mobile App provides you with
– real time live commentary and live scores
– detailed match results
– group standings
– fixtures
– team profiles

Hmm... Who do you think will win the AFCON 2013?

Nigeria: NCC to Telcos - Meet your KPIs and we lift the ban on promotions

Eugene Juwah, EVC of NCC

"Meet your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and we will lift the ban" says Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

This was disclosed by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Eugene Juwah. He said that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was ready to lift the ban on promotions and lotteries by telecommunications operators. However, this  new dispensation would affect only operators who met the KPIs.

Mr Juwah also disclosed that NCC was already carrying out the measurements to find out which operators met the KPI in December 2012 and was on the verge of releasing the results.

"We are carrying out measurements and when we finish, we will see the service providers that are meeting our thresholds. "The operators who meet our thresholds well, we will lift the ban on them, for the ones that do not meet the thresholds, the ban will still stay," he said.

Orange makes a big presence at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

Orange is on the ground in South African stadiums and will also offer a variety of digital services on mobile phones (for which it has rights to exclusive content) and on the web via its www.StarAfrica.com portal.

This event has also provided the pretext for Orange to launch its first retail activity in South Africa through two websites.

Orange has been a dedicated supporter of football in countries in which the Group is present for many years. The Group currently sponsors national teams in Cameroon, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Niger, the Central African Republic, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This commitment to African football took on a new dimension with the signature of the partnership between Orange and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in 2009, through which the Group became the principal sponsor of the six major CAF competitions until 2016. 

Two Official Mobile apps for Obama's Inauguration Tomorrow

The swearing in of President Obama -- scheduled for Monday, January 21, 2013 -- has gone mobile. Two committees have created inauguration-related apps for the event. One allows users to post remarks and photos to their Facebook and Twitter pages, while the other features live ceremony streaming. 

The 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee, the group responsible for the inaugural parade and balls, developed an app compatible with iPhones and other Smartphones that allows users to post remarks and photos to their Facebook and Twitter pages, as well decide where they want to watch the activities, Politico said. The application also is designed to direct ticket-holders to their entry points and allows viewers globally to watch the festivities streamed live.

"This is the first official Smartphone app built for a presidential inauguration," said Nate Lubin, PIC digital director. "We wanted to build a tool that will enable us to reach new people in new ways. This app does just that."

Orange introduces Orange Horizons to seek out new business opportunities outside its operator footprint in Africa and Europe

Orange has launched a new subsidiary called Orange Horizons that aims to seek out new business opportunities in countries where the Group is not already present as a mass-market telecommunications provider.

These projects, which will leverage the global reputation of the Orange brand and existing Group assets, aim to provide a new source of revenue for the Group and improve customer loyalty across its footprint without the need for significant investment. Such projects could include the launch of online stores selling telecoms-related equipment or airtime; the introduction of flexible travel solutions; or the launch of a virtual mobile operator (MVNO) activity.

The first of these projects has already been launched in South Africa under the Orange Horizons banner. This comprises two websites: firstly an e-commerce website, http://store.orange.com/za, has been launched to sell telecoms-related devices and accessories. This is combined with a country website, www.orange.com/za, which provides online content specifically tailored for a South African audience including news feeds, sports news and audiovisual content. The launch of these services coincides with the start of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, SOUTH AFRICA 2013 pan-African football tournament in which six countries in which Orange is already present will be playing. To increase interest and visibility, South African residents connecting to www.orange.com/za will be able to enter a contest to win tickets to several matches, including the final.

Interesting statistics about the Internet in 2012: 2.2 billion email users, 634 million websites

During the course of the year, there were a lot of milestones achieved on the Internet and all these answers are available on the Internet. Now Royal Pingdom has tried to capture everything in a blog post on its site.

For instance, do you know how many websites were added globally in 2012? How many internet users are there globally? When did Facebook achieve the 1 billion active user mark?

We reported some of these stats on this site when they were achieved like when Facebook achieved the 1 billion active user mark in October and when Twitter crossed the 200 million user mark in December.

Nairaland hits the 1,000,000 member mark. Congrats Seun Osewa

Seun Osewa, Founder

With an Alexa ranking of "8" in Nigeria and a global rank of 1,265, Nairaland is the most popular site and social online forum in Nigeria.

January 18th 2013, at 2.30 a.m. Eastern Time, it registered its 1 millionth member on the site.

Nairaland is a big, broad discussion forum for Nigerians. It covers dozens of topics including romance, technology, careers, business, and entertainment. And it has really been growing at a fast pace.

Nairaland was founded and is owned by Seun Osewa

According to an interview he held with Nmachi Jidenma of CP-Africa, Seun opened Nairaland to the public on the 25th of March, 2005 after working on it for about two weeks.

According to a Techloy post 4 months ago, Nairaland sees over 12 million pageviews monthly. I guess it could have increased by now.

Congrats Seun!!

90 million monthly active users, 40 million photos per day....And I still don't know why I should use Instagram

Instagram released its data on monthly active users for the first time. Hmm... 90 million monthly active users. It also claims that users share 40 million photos per day, 8500 likes per second and post 1000 comments per second.

Impressive, but I  still don't know why I should use Instagram. Not because it is not "good". Or you may say I am old-school. But I guess I have never felt the need for it even though I have known about it for quite some time.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) says Apple, Google and Samsung are the top 3 innovative companies of 2012

"Innovation has many faces, from incremental changes in existing products to entirely new offerings for customers. Companies also use knowledge new to the organization to increase efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance, improve sustainability, and boost profits. But whatever form innovation takes, its goal is clear to successful organizations: to create value from ideas, whether those ideas are new to the world or new to a particular company." - Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

The Boston Consulting Group has just released its report of "The Most Innovative Companies 2012". This report presents the results of surveys conducted to analyse the state of Innovation across regions and industries.  These surveys of more than 1,500 senior executives allow comparisons over time. They capture executives’ views of their own innovation plans and also their opinions of other companies’ innovation track records.

RIM Receives Approval from Visa for Mobile Payment Solution

Research In Motion (RIM) today announced that its Secure Element Manager (SEM) solution for NFC (Near Field Communication) mobile payments has been approved by Visa. RIM’s SEM is the backend solution for carriers that can securely manage credentials on SIM (subscriber identity module) cards installed in all types of NFC-capable mobile devices.

“The approval from Visa of RIM’s SEM solution is an important step in that it will enable carriers to support Visa issuing banks and financial institutions,” said Frank Maduri, Senior Director, NFC Services and TSM Product Management at RIM. “We now offer carriers a robust solution with around-the-clock global support that works on any NFC-capable device, and meets the stringent technology and usability guidelines for Visa.”

“RIM’s success in gaining Visa’s formal approval as secure element manager is a crucial step in expanding RIM’s role as a key security partner for mobile payment solutions around the globe,” said Andy Castonguay, Principal Analyst, at Informa Telecoms & Media. “RIM’s secure network operations center provides a unique combination of global geographic reach, and has established trusted relationships with hundreds of carriers around the world with an unparalleled reputation for security, which sets RIM apart as an SEM partner in the growing mobile payments space.”

Today’s announcement from RIM builds on the recent deployment of mobile payments in Canada by EnStream, a joint venture of Bell, Rogers and TELUS, which uses RIM’s SEM solution.

Source: Press Release