Here is an article I wrote on the rise of e-commerce in Kenya that was published in this week’s edition of the East African Newspaper. You can read it here>
USD 1 million (Ksh 75 million) is up for grabs in a new competition announced by the world’s leading maker of mobile phones, Nokia.
Targeting local innovators and developers, The Growth Economy Venture Challenge is part of Nokia’s global Calling All Innovators 2010 competition, with participants expected to create a mobile phone solutions that raise living standards of the local people. The contest which officially kicked off this week is not limited to software or hardware that uses Nokia device or software platforms, and will consider any submission that enhances the target growth economy and also provides a potential return on the investment. The prize money will go to a single winning organization with the best idea as decided by a combination of judges from Nokia Growth Partners, Nokia’s venture arm, and Forum Nokia- Nokia’s organization dedicated to third party developers and other innovators
Targeting local innovators and developers, The Growth Economy Venture Challenge is part of Nokia’s global Calling All Innovators 2010 competition, with participants expected to create a mobile phone solutions that raise living standards of the local people. The contest which officially kicked off this week is not limited to software or hardware that uses Nokia device or software platforms, and will consider any submission that enhances the target growth economy and also provides a potential return on the investment. The prize money will go to a single winning organization with the best idea as decided by a combination of judges from Nokia Growth Partners, Nokia’s venture arm, and Forum Nokia- Nokia’s organization dedicated to third party developers and other innovators.
Ten finalists from the contest will be invited to present their ideas and business models to a panel of Nokia business people and private venture capitalists. This will provide an opportunity for the innovators to receive business guidance and possibly other funding from participating venture capitalists. Finalists will be announced by mid May 2010 while the final winner will be announced in June, 2010. The deadline for submissions is April 18, 2010.
Nokia will welcome any local mobile solution that can be applied to boost the local economy and ultimately uplift their living standards of the people. And the good news is that the contest is not limited to solutions that use a Nokia device or software, said Ms Agatha Gikunda, Nokia Head of Solutions, East and Southern Africa. Ms Gikunda said Nokia would offer developers and innovators technical support and marketing opportunities designed to promote their mobile phone solutions.
Addressing local developers at a Nairobi Hotel, Ms Gikunda said Nokia would accept innovative ideas in four main categories in the competition namely; Eco/Being Green applications that help to save the planet with innovative, eco-friendly uses, and Productivity applications that make life easier, and helps someone to be more efficient in utilities, business, or personal finance applications.
The other category is Life Improvement applications that positively affect the daily lives of people living in developing countries by using the prevalence of mobile devices to teach children and illiterate adults critical skills, and agriculture health.The final category falls under Entertainment applications that bring out musical talent and show off the coolest multimedia features, including music, multimedia and games to bring an element of having fun.
Mr Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication challenged local developers to come up with mobile solutions that can compete with the best in the world. Mr Ndemo said the competition was designed to inspire innovators to create a mobile phone product or solution that will enhance the lives of the local people. Interested innovators can learn more and enter their submissions at www.callingallinnovators.com
About Nokia Growth Partners
Nokia Growth Partners is a leading global growth stage venture firm focused on mobile technology, services and media. Nokia Growth Partners is funded by Nokia to provide superior returns and investments into companies, firms, and people that are changing the face of mobility, communications, and the internet. Nokia Growth Partners works closely with
the promising companies adding value through deep domain expertise and network in the mobility market combined with many years of venture investment experience. Nokia Growth Partners offers companies in which it invests a global engagement model through its presence in the U.S., Europe and Asia. For more information visit: www.nokiagrowthpartners.com
Nokia’s global developer program, Forum Nokia connects developers to
tools, technical information, support, and distribution channels they can
use to build and market applications around the globe. From offices in the
U.S., Europe, India, Japan, China, and Singapore, Forum Nokia provides
technical and business development support to developers and operators to
assist them in achieving their goal of successfully launching applications
and services to consumers and enterprises. More information is available
at www.forum.nokia.com
About Nokia
Nokia is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world’s leading
maker of mobile devices. Today, we are connecting people in new and
different ways – fusing advanced mobile technology with personalized
services to enable people to stay close to what matters to them. We also
provide comprehensive digital map information through NAVTEQ; and
equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through
Nokia Siemens Networks. More information at www.nokia.com
Thanks to Erik Hersman for live blogging a good portion of the happenings at the Mobile Web East Africa Conference 2010 today. You can access the same at his blog here>
This is a presentation I gave this afternoon at the Inaugural Mobile Web East Africa Conference 2010 here in Nairobi, Kenya. The title of the presentation in full is (When) Will mobile be adopted as the platform of choice for marketers in East Africa? The perspective of a leading Digital Agency (Dotsavvy) with regard to how they are preparing for the expansion of mobile, and why. You can download it here>
New technology will enhance protection of cardholders from fraudulent card activity.
NAIROBI, February 1, 2010… Equity Bank has become the first bank in the country to install the EMV (Europay-Mastercard-VISA) technology in the bank’s Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) outlets and point of sales (POS) throughout the country. The EMV (Europay-Mastercard-Visa) card contains a small computer chip, which not only gives them greater memory capacity, but improves security for consumers by making it nearly impossible for unscrupulous people to decode or tamper with.
The chip is capable of securely storing data that uniquely identifies the card and the cardholder, putting an end to misuse through loss, stolen and counterfeit cards. It means that card issuers can provide assurance to both cardholders and retailers that their transactions are legitimate and cannot be counterfeited. With the installation of the new technology, the bank will process and manage Visa cards with the EMV chip at all Equity Bank outlets and Points of Sales (POS) seamlessly by accepting card and pin, without the need for customers signing on receipts as is the case at the moment.
Speaking during the signing of the partnership between EMV Visa Card and Equity Bank, the bank’s CEO Dr James Mwangi said the new EMV card technology would enhance the protection of card holders from fraudulent card activity and substantially reduce the percentage of fraud in the country.“The chip card is impossible to copy and is tamper proof, as EMV-chip cards are widely known as one of the best and most cost effective solutions available to mitigate fraud. Ultimately, this new technology will drastically reduce fraud activity in the banks outlets,” Dr Mwangi said. Dr Mwangi said card security was a big issue worldwide that could no longer be ignored, hence the need by the bank to install new security standards practiced worldwide to protect its customers from unscrupulous people.
Mr Victor Ndlovu-The Visa Card Regional Manager said the installation of the system would enable the bank’s customers to transact safely, efficiently and reliably. “The Visa EMV card allows the bank to protect itself, its customers and merchants where POS terminals are installed against unscrupulous fraud and drastically reduce fraudulent activity” Mr Ndlovu said. He praised Equity Bank for being the first banking institution in the country to adopt the new technology and for having the interests of its customers at heart.
Equity Bank point of sale terminals (POS) are available in retail outlets i.e. supermarkets, petrol stations throughout the country. The POS allows purchases from customers accounts without any bank charges. Equity Bank cardholders have the additional benefit of withdrawing cash (cash back) from these outlets after purchase of goods. The installation of the EMV technology is supported by the Equity Bank’s new Card Management System recently installed by the OpenWay Group of Belgium and designed for multi-institution and multi-currency transaction processing, with the ability to handle over 60 million cards with speed performance of 180,000 transactions per minute. Already in operation at the Bank, the Way 4 System which is an online Card Management System will increase efficiency and eliminate the amount of time it takes to transact business in all Equity Bank Point of Sales outlets and ATMs in the region.
This is an article I wrote on the rise of the Mobile Web in Kenya that was published in this week’s edition of the East African Newspaper. You read it here>
Nokia has today announced plans to release a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones that includes high-end walk and drive navigation at no extra cost, available for download at www.nokia.com/maps. This move has the potential to nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market. The new version of Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as detailed maps for more than 180 countries.
“Why have a mobile phone and a separate car navigation system that works in only one country or region? Put the two together, make it free, make it global and you almost double the potential size of the mobile navigation market,” explained Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. “Nokia is the only company with a mobile navigation service for both drivers and pedestrians that works across the world. Unlike the legacy car navigation manufacturers, we don’t make you buy maps for different countries or regions even if you’re only visiting for a few days. We offer both navigation and maps free of charge, with all the high-end functionality and features that people now expect.”
“The large-scale availability of free-of-charge mobile phone navigation offerings using high-quality map data will be a game changer for the navigation industry,” said Thilo Koslowski, Vice President Automotive and Vehicle ICT at Gartner. “Such offerings will accelerate mass market adoption for navigation solutions and shift innovation focus to location-based services that go beyond traditional routing benefits.”
For Nokia, removing the costs associated with navigation for drivers and pedestrians allows the company to quickly activate a massive user base to which it can offer new location features, content and services. This is part of Nokia’s strategy to lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services. The move is also in line with Nokia’s vision that the next wave of growth will be centered on the location-aware, social internet — as the ‘where’ people are doing things becomes as important as the ‘what’ they are doing.
According to research firm Canalys, the number of people worldwide using GPS navigation on their mobile phones was approximately 27 million at the end of 2009. With this announcement Nokia potentially grows the size of this installed user base to about 50 million by enabling smartphone owners, with compatible devices and devices that will be made compatible shortly to activate free drive and walk navigation through a simple download of the new Ovi Maps. Nokia will further grow this base as it quickly adds more smartphones to the compatible devices list. Canalys also estimated in 2009 that the installed base of smartphones with integrated GPS was 163 million units worldwide, of which Nokia accounted for more than half (51%) having shipped cumulatively 83 million GPS devices.
“This is a game changing move. By leveraging our NAVTEQ acquisition, and our context sensitive service offering, we can now put a complete navigation system in the palm of your hand, wherever in the world you are, whenever you need it – and at no extra cost,” continued Anssi Vanjoki. “By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world. The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for navigation.”
By removing the added costs for consumers Nokia expects to fuel the take-up of mobile maps and navigation providing its ecosystem of partners with clear business opportunities:
- For operators:
Nokia believes it will enable them to offer their customers a complete car and personal navigation package as well as encourage the take-up of data plans. An additional benefit for operators is that Ovi Maps uses a unique hybrid technology that is optimized for use on a mobile network. By using advanced vector graphics, plus an intelligent combination of pre-loaded and online maps, the new version of Ovi Maps uses a fraction of the bandwidth of the bulky bitmap technology used by most mobile map providers.
- For 3rd party application developers:
Making navigation on a mobile as familiar as sending a text or taking a picture presents a huge opportunity as the customer base for additional location-based applications expands. Via the Ovi for Developers Beta Program, Nokia has given selected developers and publishers a preview of the Ovi APIs and SDK – Beta (software development kit) which will allow them to build such applications. These will then be made available through Nokia’s Ovi Store.
Ovi Maps is immediately available for download for 10 Nokia handsets, including the popular Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia E72, with more Nokia smartphones expected to be added in the coming weeks. In the meantime, current owners of Nokia smartphones that are compatible with the new Ovi Maps can download it free of charge from www.nokia.com/maps.
From March 2010, new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with high-end walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.
Ovi Maps covers more than 180 countries with car and pedestrian navigation for 74 countries in 46 languages and 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world. Lonely Planet and Michelin guides have information on more than 1,000 destinations globally.
Largest bank by customer base gains capacity to handle 180,000 transactions per minute.
Nairobi, KENYA, 21 January, 2010
Equity Bank has fully migrated to the Card Management System from OpenWay Group of Belgium. The Way 4 System which is an online Card Management system is designed for multi-institution and multi-currency transaction processing, and has the ability to handle over 60 million cards with speed performance of 180,000 transactions per minute.
The system which received the highest possible rating by Gartner – the top organization for rating software in the world- also provides support for non-card based transactions over multiple self service channels, and also transacts different currencies.
Already in operation, the new system will increase efficiency and eliminate the amount of time it takes to transact business in all Equity Bank Point of Sales outlets and ATMs in the region.
Speaking during the signing of the partnership between OpenWay Group and Equity Bank, Dr. James Mwangi said the system has capacity to host the combined network of Equity Bank branches, subsidiaries and other banks at reduced costs occasioned by the automated workflows provided by the Group.
‘The new system not only gives Equity Bank a niche in terms of competitiveness in cutting edge technology and card management, but allows speedy and efficient transaction process in real time, and for all currencies,’ Dr Mwangi said.
Dr Mwangi said the new migration had positioned Equity as the first banking institution in the region capable of handling regional inter switching connectivity with ease, noting that the cost reduction and increased volume of channel transactions would translate into higher profit margins.
He said the new switch system would come in handy with the recently launched partnership between Equity Bank and Safaricom which will allow M-Pesa account holders to withdraw money from the banks 550 Automated Teller Machines countrywide.
Incidents of fraud in card transactions in the country would also be reduced drastically with the implementation of the EMV ( Eurocard, Mastercard, VISA) cards, Dr Mwangi said.
OpenWay Managing Director Wim Pardon said the robust Way 4 switching and back office system has also enabled Equity Bank seamlessly roll out in the region. The system has a built in online monitoring capability and has been used for issuing debit and credit cards.
Mr Pardon who was accompanied by the Account Relationship Manager Georges Michel said that Way 4 is looking at this partnership as an ideal opportunity into the African Market.
The system is equipped with a card association readiness for Visa, Mastercard, JCB , CUP among others. This means all other banks’ VISA cards can now be used on Equity Bank Point of Sale terminals in leading supermarkets and other retail outlets countrywide.
The investment was prompted by need for a regional switching system for the bank and the challenge of coupling system stability with higher capacity and faster transaction speeds.
I&M Bank has launched local e-commerce services in Kenya today. I&M Bank is the first bank in Kenya to offer local e-commerce services that would enable merchants to sell their goods online in Kenya and beyond. I&M Bank’s e-commerce offering is being offered through strategic partnerships with VISA International and payment gateway service provider Iveri of South Africa. These key partnerships mean that I&M Bank’s e-commerce service is not only world-class, it also means that credit card and debit card payments can be made online from any part of the world.
Prior to I&M Bank’s e-commerce service, merchants in Kenya who wanted to sell online needed to set-up subsidiary companies outside Kenya where they could then register for merchant bank accounts and payment processing services in other countries such as the UK or the US. This meant that payments would need to be processed via international services before being remitted to Kenya, leading to higher costs and lower margins.
Now, through I&M Bank, merchants in Kenya will have payments processed online via Iveri in South Africa and then acquired by I&M Bank which will not only be faster, but also more cost-effective. It is expected that more Banks such as Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) will also start offering e-commerce services in Kenya soon since they advertised for online payment processing services last year (also as reported in this blog).
Nairobi, 13th January 2010
The Kenya ICT Board, the state corporation charged with developing and promoting the Business Process Outsourcing Sector ( BPO) has further extended the deadline for bandwidth capacity support to the BPO Industry.
The board through the Government of Kenya has received credit from the International Development Association (IDA) to fund this initiative aimed at assisting industry players meet the cost of internet connectivity.
The first phase of capacity support ran from 1st July 2007 to Feb 2009. During this time, USD 508,937.29 (circa Ksh 40m) out of a budgeted amount of USD7M was disbursed. It is predicted that the extension of this support will significantly increase the uptake of the subsidy by industry players and give the industry the necessary boost to grow and be able to compete on a global scale.
This subsidy, funded by the World Bank will now be extended from March 1, 2009 to 31st March 2010. This is the final extension in response to the board’s request on behalf of the industry with an aim to mitigate the high prices of internet access in the country which is reducing albeit slowly following the landing of the Teams and Seacom fibre optic cables.
The capacity support will be disbursed effective immediately and will close on March 31st 2010.
Eligibility for the bandwidth capacity support is open to all BPO operators in Kenya who currently offer outsourcing services. The Kenya ICT Board will audit the companies and oversee the disbursement of the funds to the BPO operators upon receipt of applications from operators.
Mr. Paul Kukubo, CEO Kenya ICT Board says, “Increasing Kenya’s competitiveness in the global BPO sphere is vital for the growth of the industry. With the fibre Optic cables now in place, Kenya has become a significant competitor in the global BPO space. We expect the cost of internet connectivity to drop significantly. But this will take some time. This extension of bandwidth capacity support will help the industry reduce operating costs and thus increase global competitiveness in the short term.”
The criteria and procedure for bandwidth capacity disbursement remains:
Step 1: BPO companies to register with Kenya ICT Board as a BPO operator by completing a registration form available at Kenya ICT Board Offices and on our website (www.ict.go.ke)
Step 2: Sign a “BPO Capacity Purchase Scheme MOU Agreement” with the Kenya ICT Board. The MOU documents are available at Kenya ICT Board Offices – 12th Floor Telposta Towers, Koinange Lane.
Step 3: Audit and verification of the required submissions will be carried out. Upon completion, the capacity support will be provided.
Step 4: Post award, monitoring and Evaluation will be carried out consecutively and concurrently by a Kenya ICT Board at regular intervals
Enquiries:
Lucy Odhiambo Email: lodhiambo@ict.co.ke 0737 839047 or
Haji Tomno Email: htomno@ict.go.ke Tel: +254 020 2089061/2211960
About Kenya ICT Board:
The Kenya ICT Board was established by HE President Mwai Kibaki, as a state corporation under the State Corporations Act Cap. 446 on 19th February 2007. The achievement of an information-based society is one of the main priorities of the Government towards the realization of national development goals and objectives for wealth and employment creation. ICT is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country. Harnessing of ICT will therefore help the Government to realize a number of its key public policy objectives.
The objectives of the Kenya ICT Board include: To develop, launch and sustain a globally compelling brand marketing campaign for Kenya ICT, To develop and promote competitive ICT industries in Kenya, To develop world class Kenyan ICT institutions and To increase ICT access.
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