Monthly Archive for September, 2011

Kenya’s Cellulant to power mobile applications for Standard Chartered in Africa

Published on September 23, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Press Release

…following recent KShs.100million investment on its new platform release 3.0

Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, the first bank in its global network and among the first globally to launch mobile banking on USSD platform in partnership with Cellulant 3 years ago, is looking to be the first to rollout a mobile commerce ecosystem network for its customers.

Cellulant, who power mobile banking for more than 32 banks in Africa, operate Africa’s leading mobile commerce network enabling over Kshs.10 billion in transaction value last year. With the new deal, Cellulant will deploy its new mobile commerce platform dubbed Release 3.0 which is a mobile commerce platform that enables banking, merchant services, digital services, bulk payments and agency banking via applications on android, ios (apple) and other channels access such as USSD, SMS and Java applications.

Standard Chartered Kenya’s Consumer Banking Director, Kariuki Ngari, says that this investment has already seen them double the active base of M-banking users over the second quarter winning the Bank an award within its global network. He adds that the Bank is eager to see its customers adopt the new platform as it plans to roll out new services on its alternative channels.

Cellulant have been powering mobile banking for Standard Chartered Bank for about 3 years across 5 countries in Africa (Ghana, Zambia, Botswana, Nigeria and Kenya) and is looking to rolling this across all Standard Chartered Bank markets in Africa enabling the Banks customers across the continent to enjoy mobile banking, merchant payments, web payments, digital content and agency banking on their phones.

Standard Chartered Bank’s decision to upgrade to Cellulant’s new mobile commerce platform, Ngari explained, is also based on the platform robustness which allows the bank to tailor make different products for various markets across Africa.

This new software iteration is a highly robust technical platform that integrates to different core banking systems with security features on encryption, monitoring and channel management business tools. The platform also aggregates banks channels such as ATM and Internet Banking to enhance customer’s user experience and enable services such as card less withdrawals, secure PIN management, SMS alerts on mobile for ATM, bill presentment and payment.

According to Cellulant’s Chief Business Officer, Mr. Paul Ndichu, the firm invests 15% of its annual revenues from all its markets in Research and Development to drive product enhancement and new mobile commerce platforms that enables value chains. Standard Chartered Bank has been aggressive in the mobile space deploying its own application store with Apple (iPhone and iPad) for its customers and employees, with applications such as BREEZE, FX RATES, Straight-to-Bank and Trade port.

“The Bank’s aim is to more than triple mobile commerce usage as an alternative delivery channel for our range of services as part of our strategic commitment to meet our discerning customers’ needs more conveniently,” Ngari said. “Cellulant has managed to meet our international demands to provide a technically superior, robust and scalable solution and we are proud to continue this journey with them.”

Cellulant drives mobile commerce in 10 countries:  Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and now Zimbabwe and Mozambique and is one of the first companies to be issued with the Mobile payments license in Nigeria. In Africa, Cellulant enables mobiles commerce over 30 mobile networks for different industries including banking, insurance, music, utilities, retail and manufacturing.

“We have built a mobile commerce network that is connected to different platforms across different value chains in Africa such as MNO wallets, banks, Merchant bill payment gateways and content delivery channels to deliver a transformational experience on mobile,” Ndichu explained.

Meet Kenya’s “Touch” Generation – An emerging social class of the digital elite.

Published on September 21, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

This is an article I wrote that was published earlier this month in Up Magazine, Nairobi’s Urban Perspective. Enjoy the read :)

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Kenya is undoubtedly in the midst of a technology-driven revolution. You can tell because now everybody’s status reads “always online” a sure sign that we are in the midst of a digital upheaval. However, even as we embrace this new phenomenon, there is an emergence of an elite digital social class. You can see them when you go to that upmarket mall or restaurant. You see them pecking away incessantly on their digital paraphernalia of phones, tablets and laptops. They live online. They have legions of digital followers, friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Their blogs sway public opinion on matters as trivial as fashion sense and music style, to the more serious topics such as multi-billion shilling political scandal and the next general election that mainstream media are hesitant to touch. They are Kenya’s “digerati” or what I prefer to call the touch generation.

The touch generation are everything that is digitally cool. They are well educated, highly exposed and seemingly have infinite bandwidth on all things digital. They wield their iPhones, iPads and any other forms of touch devices with magical ease and kung fu mastery. If it were possible, we would bestow upon them black belts in the digital arts. They are the cutting edge ying to what is the rest of the world’s old school yang.

Going forward, the irony about the current touch generation is that they are just the tip of the iceberg. It occurs to me now, more than ever, that I am a digital dinosaur of sorts when I still use a full-sized macbook to get things done instead of an iPad. Case in point is that my two-year-old son is fast becoming increasingly adept at slinging angry birds on my iPhone with no form of previous instruction. It is these, the newest arrivals of the touch generation, which amaze me the most. Technology has become so intuitive that even two year olds “get it” even as our generation struggles to come to grips with what the real value of a tablet device like the iPad really is. It’s quite perplexing to say the least.

As I see it, the touch generation is quite possibly the next step of human evolution, as we know it. It’s a generation that is always “logged on” with digital technology and is most at ease with it. A life without being online for them would be like a life without oxygen. I dread to imagine what would happen to the touch generation should they suddenly be unable to access their blogs, Facebook Wall or Tweets all the time – at home, at work, and on the move. Could such a thing simply lead to the collapse of humanity, as we know it? I think it’s not that farfetched when the effects of the Arab Spring were essentially a result of the touch generation’s collective digital heave. The touch generation changes everything.

IBM boosts commitment to Africa, doubles employee leadership development and public service program.

Published on September 21, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Press Release

IBM today announced it will double the number of emerging leaders it sends on pro bono assignments to Africa during the next three years. As part of the company’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program, aimed at developing IBM leaders and providing skilled assistance to local governments and non-government organizations in emerging markets, IBM will send about 600 employees to Africa through 2015. The company made the announcement at THINK: A Forum on the Future of Leadership.

As part of this commitment, a team from IBM will work on a global health project, the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative, which is aimed at reducing cervical cancer deaths in Africa and Latin America. The Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative is a cause championed by the George W. Bush Institute and its partners – the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and UNAIDS. The IBM team will create a business plan for the technology that enables the participating organizations to achieve shared objectives such as treating and preventing cervical cancer and raising breast cancer awareness.

The world is discovering Africa’s potential, and IBM is uniquely poised to help the region meet its growing demands. IBM’s Corporate Service Corps program helps lay the groundwork with communities by strengthening relationships with government officials and local partners, while providing IBM employees with a unique leadership development experience, said Bruno Di Leo, General Manager, IBM Growth Markets Unit. As IBM targets more growth and emerging markets, leadership programs such as the Corporate Service Corps are vital to help train our employees on growth market environments and development opportunities.

Leadership for the 21st Century

The expansion of IBM’s commitment to Africa and leadership development was announced at THINK: A Forum on the Future of Leadership, an IBM conference to mark the company’s Centennial that convenes more than 700 emerging leaders from government, business, academia and science from around the globe, and examines how models of leadership in business, technology and society must evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The Corporate Service Corps program provides local communities with the services and expertise of IBM’s top talent, while training them to be 21st century leaders. It cultivates future IBM leaders from all parts of the globe to offer pro bono business and IT consulting in growth markets. Since the launch of the Corporate Service Corps in 2008, nearly 1,400 IBM employees have been dispatched on more than 120 team assignments in 24 countries, including Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Ghana, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Poland, Morocco, Tanzania and Vietnam.

IBM currently has two Corporate Service Corps teams on the ground in Morogoro, Tanzania working with the country’s postal system, and a team in Limpopo, South Africa assisting in the development of an education strategy in conjunction with the Limpopo Department of Education. Other IBM Corporate Service Corps teams are due to arrive in Ghana and Kenya in October.

“Expanding the Corporate Service Corps will differentiate IBM by providing us with a next generation of skilled leaders while helping nations around the world solve their most pressing problems,” said Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, and President of the IBM Foundation. “This is a model that increasingly our clients will be emulating. Given that IBM anticipates 30 percent of its geographic revenue will be tied to emerging markets by 2015, the Corporate Service Corps allows IBM to do well by doing good — especially in Africa.”

Hands-on Experience in Growth Markets

Taking notice of IBM’s success, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently announced it is working with IBM to increase U.S.-based international corporate volunteerism, which Washington, DC-based CDC Development Solutions (CDS) estimates has risen from just 280 employees dispatched in 2006 to 2,000 employee volunteers in 58 nations this year. Now IBM, USAID and CDS are providing corporations of all sizes with strategies needed to make their own international volunteerism projects more effective.

A new survey shows that the Corporate Service Corps is helping IBM employees develop leadership and problem-solving skills. Nine of every ten participants in the program said their international corporate service experience provided them with an excellent leadership opportunity, while helping them better understand IBM’s role in the developing world, increasing their cultural awareness, and making them more effective at their jobs.

Corporate Service Corps projects reinforce the transformation of Africa, which is building out its technology infrastructure, civic and social institutions in light of a growing middle class. In Nigeria’s Cross River province, IBM teams developed local programs to provide free health care to mothers and young children, as well as one that provides financial assistance to disadvantaged households to spur entrepreneurialism.

In Ghana, IBM teams have worked on projects to narrow the digital divide between rural and urban areas. In Kenya, IBM employees have provided advice to improve the country’s ability to develop and retain top technology talent; modernize the national postal service; and establish a framework for e-government services for citizens, including electronic voting. In Tanzania, IBMers helped the country develop an eco-tourism industry and adopt technology in its universities.

Airtel Money customers in Kenya to use mobile phones as virtual credit cards.

Published on September 21, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Press Release

Airtel Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Worldwide have announced the availability of the world’s first virtual payments card that operates off a mobile phone-based wallet in Kenya called PayOnline. Kenya is the first market in the world to make this type of payment solution publicly available, which lets Airtel Money customers in Kenya use their mobile phones to make online purchases from international MasterCard merchants around the world.

Airtel’s mobile technology platform works with the financial structure and regulatory framework provided by Standard Chartered Bank and with the global acceptance of MasterCard to ensure that Kenyan consumers will be able to transact online in a reliable, convenient and secure environment.

According to N Arjun, Chief Projects and Transformation Officer, Airtel Africa, “The launch of the world’s first virtual payment card on a mobile phone account marks a major milestone in Kenyan mobile commerce. It’s just like having a payment card on your mobile phone that you can use for online purchases, offering consumers high levels of security, accessibility, acceptance, and a global reach.”

With PayOnline, paying for an online purchase is quick and easy. People simply request a single-use shopping card number directly from their mobile phone’s menu of options. Airtel money services will then generate a special 16-digit number that enables the completion of the purchase. Once the purchase has been authorised, a confirmation message will be sent to the user’s mobile phone.

A single-use number assigned to each PayOnline purchase must be used for the first time within 24 hours, which offers increased security and protection to prevent unlawful access to people’s money. Transactions will initially be limited to Kes. 35,000.00 per transaction and Kes. 70,000.00 per day. However, theselimits can be changed in the months to come – dependent on demand.

People can purchase items online which are quoted in Euro, USD or Pound, and will be charged a fixed transaction fee of Kes.50.00 for each “PayOnline” number generated. This fee will be deducted from the customer’s Airtel Money account. “The connected world is shrinking at a rapid pace as people turn to mobile phones to connect with friends and make purchases on-the-go.

We saw that people want more options in making their payments easier and more convenient which is why we joined hands with Airtel and Standard Chartered Bank to help make people’s lives easier with this innovative new product,” said Daniel Monehin, MasterCard’s area head for East & West Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, MasterCard Worldwide.

“Financially empowering the citizens of Kenya is a rewarding experience, not only for consumers themselves, but for the various institutions and merchants that are involved in doing so. MasterCard looks forward to working with Standard Chartered Bank and Airtel to continue promoting the advantages of electronic payments and to accelerate the displacement of cash and cheques in Kenya,” he added.

“As a leading international bank in Africa, we are always looking for ways to bring innovative financial solutions to our customers in line with our brand promise: Here for good. We have been in Kenya for 100 years and have always been at the forefront of introducing new products and services to the market. The PayOnline solution is a unique way of ensuring that our customers can transact in the digital world for the first time without having to have a credit card or use their physical debit card. Airtel PayOnline will enable more Kenyan consumers to connect to the global marketplace via their mobile phones no matter where they are in the world,” says Kariuki Ngari, Executive Director Kenya, and Cluster Head, East Africa Consumer Banking, Standard Chartered Bank.

PayOnline received top honors as the Best Mobile Money Product or Solution at the Annual Global Mobile Awards held during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011. PayOnline was recognized as an innovative mobile payments solution that offers consumers in Kenya, and eventually across Africa, greater participation in the financial system through mobile commerce.

Dealfish goes mobile on Google’s Android Market.

Published on September 16, 2011 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Dealfish Android mobile app homescreen

Its been sometime since I did a decent blog post so I’m pretty happy to finally post something that is reasonably new (i.e. meaning a couple of weeks late!). As anyone will tell you who knows me, I am super passionate about mobile as a marketing and service delivery channel. More specifically, I am talking about the mobile web and more recently mobile apps as they proliferate the mobile world, as we know it. Its one of the reasons why I was so attracted to joining Dealfish from day one, now over a year ago (which actually seems to feel like such a short time since I have been so very busy building the business in East Africa).

Dealfish was designed at launch to work on both feature (basic) mobile phones as well as smartphones across Africa. This was, and, is still quite prescient as a good number of web sites in Africa are yet to be mobile enabled. However, this trend is slowly changing as some African countries have statistics that show over 50% of their mobile subscribers go online via the mobile web, almost exclusively. Therefore, from this perspective, it was only a matter of time before we took a step further at Dealfish and developed a mobile app to keep the pace with the emerging “MobileFirst” trend that is engulfing the dark continent (aka Africa).

A couple of week ago, Dealfish quietly launched its very first mobile app on Google’s Android Market. The Dealfish Android mobile app was developed over several months and I am quite pleased to say it works pretty well. This is our first stab at deploying a mobile app and as such its still very much a work-in-progress. I am particularly proud that most of the work done in building the app was actually done right here in Nairobi which goes to show the depth and breadth of mobile application developers we have in East Africa. In addition, we are already working on version 1.1 of the Dealfish Android App.

An example of a search results page on the Dealfish Android mobile app.

The way the Dealfish Android mobile app has been designed to work is so that you have access to most of the features and functionality that you currently get on both our PC and mobile web sites. However, the experience goes a step further in making access to content and services on Dealfish faster and more user-friendly for the Android user. In addition, there are additional features we are going to introduce in the next release but unfortunately I cannot go into specifics here, at least not just yet. However, I have tested it on Huawei’s entry-level IDEOS, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7, Galaxy Mini and Galaxy s2 devices – in all cases, it works flawlessly.

At launch, the Dealfish Android mobile app is only available for listings on our Kenya and Nigeria web sites. We plan to expand these listings to include our other countries in due course. We would love to hear your comments on it. You can download the Dealfish Android mobile app here>

 

[Video] KTN TV interview on the state of social media in Kenya.

Published on September 11, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

This is an interview I had a couple of weeks ago on KTN TV’s Sunrise Show where I talked about the current state of social media in Kenya. I hope you enjoy it!

[PodCast] Dealfish Uganda Interview on Sanyu FM in Kampala.

Published on September 1, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Dealfish hanging out with the Sanyu FM Radio Breakfast Crew in Kampala, Uganda

Below is a PodCast of an interview that Paul Mulira, the Dealfish Uganda Area Manager and I had on Sanyu FM Radio in Kampala this morning on their breakfast show. The interview was done with Seanice Kacungira (who used to work at Capital FM in Nairobi in Kenya a few years ago), as well as FatBoy and Melanie. Tune in and enjoy!

Play

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