African Tech News Tidbits – Week of July 29th 2012

July 28, 2012July 31, 2012 ~ Abou Kone ~ Leave a comment

So what’s new in African Tech News? A bunch of interesting tidbits as usual. But before that, I need you to take some time and head over to Start Some Good and support the 30 Coders Campaign we are currently running to sponsor the training of 33 African software developers. Also don’t forget to tune in this Sunday at 1:00PM for The African Tech Weekly show on Coders4Africa radio, as we will speak with a Senegalese coder doing his thing, and a quick trip to Ghana again this week to get the feel for the local tech scene. Now back to your regularly scheduled program:

In an exclusive interview with The New Times at the school, Yves Tumushimishe, a primary six pupil said through the skills he has acquired, he has been able to develop the mobile phone software through the use of scratch programme. Scratch is a highly engaging programming system that allows young students to create animated stories, games, interactive art, and simulations. Students use a drag and drop interface of “code blocks” to create sound, movement and actions to objects known as sprites.Tumushimishe says before getting a laptop under the OLPC programme, he did not even know how to write a single word on a computer. “But now through the skills and knowledge I have gained from my laptop, I have developed a software which can be activated on a mobile phone and be used as a game.”He says he is looking forward to develop more software and to teach his classmates how they can develop their own and how to become more creative and innovative in ICT.”I come from a poor family and I did not have hope of ever owning a laptop. I thank the government for setting up OLPC which has totally changed my life. I plan to study computer science at the university because I want to contribute a lot to the national development in terms of ICT which I believe will spur development of our country not only in the region but internationally,” Tumushimishe said.
http://www.youtube.com/olympics: This is the official Youtube channel that 42 African countries can use to watch a live stream of the Olympic Games. Good looking out Google.
When Kenyans in the US want to send their families back home a goat for Christmas, they use Mama Mikes. This online shop, nicknamed e-mbuzi (‘mbuzi’ is Swahili for ‘goat’) because of the many goat deliveries it makes, was founded by Segeni Ngethe in 2001. Ngethe shared his experiences of running an online retail business in Kenya with How we made it in Africa’s Dinfin Mulupi.
Former Intel Capital director, Eghosa Omoigui, early-stage technology investor, Shadi Mehraein and former VC Finance at Founders Fund, Amber Fowler, all Partners at Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, EchoVC are currently in Lagos, Nigeria in search of investment opportunities.
Paga, the mobile payment solution from Nigeria we’ve featured before, is launching a major marketing campaign called “I Can’t Shout!”.
In Burkina Faso, students that passed the end of high school cycle exam called Baccalaureat were given a bad surprise when it was revealed that an initial list of results in the Lycee National El Hadji Aboubacar Sangoulé Lamizana of Ouagadougou was erroneous due to a software error and had to be rescinded. Police had to use tear gas to calm things down
OLX Nigeria, the new impersonation of the former DealFish site, is now up while operations for DealFish are winding down.
Huawei technologies a, Chinese global information and communication technology (ICT) company has launched a competition that will enable university students develop android soft ware applications which will in turn help address the country’s needs. “Such initiatives are meant to promote local talent among Ugandan students and they are also a way of fostering development of Uganda’s ICT system”, said Mr. Yang Yang, the Huawei Uganda chief executive officer during the launch of the Huawei Android Application Challenge (HAAC) in Kampala recently.
More than 80 per cent of Kenyan websites can be easily hacked since they operate on software whose security codes are available online for free, says an industry cyber report.The report by Serianu — an IT security consulting firm — found that more than 80 per cent of local website are either built on open source software such as Joomla, Apache and MySQL and their security settings not customised.
Botswana and Namibia finally launched their links to the 14,000-kilometre underground sea cable system. The sea cable is expected to provide speeds of up to 5.12 terabits per second. The US$750 million fiber optic submarine West African Cable System (WACS), which will provide faster Internet connections, went live in Namibia last, and stretches down the west coast of Africa.
Police officers in Kenya have been warned by a top official not to spend too much time on the social networking website Facebook while on duty. Police officers in the country have been using Twitter and Facebook to engage with their neighbouring communities. They have also reportedly used the online services to mobilise support against criminal gangs. But the district commissioner of Murang’a South, Muktar Ali, has complained that some officers, who have smartphones, are using Facebook excessively while on duty, resulting in them being distracted from doing their jobs.
A number of African presidents have also set up a virtual home on Twitter, and while some might not be as active as others, they still share their thoughts and feelings with those who follow them.Here are 5 African presidents to follow on Twitter.
Cote d’Ivoire: 675223 students registered for school on the web, of which 575178 were for public schools. Celpaid, which was one of the mobile companies supporting the effort, estimated that $7,6 M were collected in school fees. The country recently announced a plan to lay down 6000 Km of fiber optic cable which will be the backbone for a government intranet linking all major agencies.
Enterprise software maker SAP has announced plans to launch its widely successful SAP Skills for Africa Program in Kenya to spur the country’s IT skills capacity and further enhance technological innovation.
TruSpot has developed several strategic partnerships record labels and artistes in Africa. TruSpot has the largest African music database online. The company has also leveraged on the widespread use of the Blackberry smartphone to develop its own Blackberry app, to provide streaming music to its users via the Blackberry device. TruSpot presently boasts of over 8 million unique visitors and about 80,000 registered users as at December 2011.
A guest post on Techloy by Aliyu Daku, founder of AfricaMars, an African TV content platform, on how The Web And Other Platforms Are Disrupting The Nollywood Industry.
Entrepreneurs from Senegal, Ghana & Cote d’Ivoire receive top honors at GIST startup boot camp West Africa: On July 10-11 was held in Dakar, Senegal, the GIST Startup Bootcamp West Africa, a two-day event with international investors, mentoring and a pitching competition organized by the incubator CTIC Dakar along with the GIST Initiative (US dept. of State). This major conference which gathered more than 130 tech entrepreneurs from all over West Africa also saw the launch of the 1st investors’ club in Senegal dedicated to tech startups.
JumpStart is a community driven initiative for mobile and Internet technology entrepreneurs, tech professionals, investors and other individuals and organisations involved in the information technology industry in Zimbabwe. “This year’s BarCamp will be held on August 24 while the Jumpstart Challenge will take place on the 25th. Both events will be held at the original venue of the Keg (Harare Sports Club). The BarCamp event is free to the tech community while a nominal fee for the Jumpstart Challenge is under review.
It has been one year that Mrs. Omobola Johnson took the mantle of leadership at ministry of communications technology in Nigeria. Emma Okonji and Amaka Eze examine how far she has gone in achieving her mandate.
Canada’s Edgewater Wireless has announced a USD4.9 million deal that will expand its market for its WiFi3 technology into West and Central Africa. The agreement, with World Affinity Telecom, is for the supply of next-generation WiFi3 technology as part of phase 1 of a multi-phase program designed to deliver WiFi3 and WLAN coverage throughout several Western and Central African countries. The first phase of the deployment program is to begin in the third quarter of this year in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
It’s elegant, it’s hip and it’s one of the hottest phones on the African market. Nothing says “I am important” like a man or woman whipping out a BlackBerry smartphone. It’s easily recognizable with its wide screen and trademark keypad. According to Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, editor at Ghananewslink.com, “What is your BB pin?” has become the ultimate sizing-up request. To be asked the question, he says, you have to be considered cool enough to own one. Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian company that owns BlackBerry, has managed to carve itself a niche in Africa. In 2010, with the help of Brightstar, a global services company that works with key players in the wireless industry, it started distributing its gadgets throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Today South Africa boasts over 2.5 million active devices, according to World Wide Worx, a South African technology research firm. Nigeria has 2 million active devices.
Cheki is “basically an online company where we do buying and selling of cars. So as consumers, you can go on line and look for cars that you want without having a middleman. You can check the cars, research on the cars you need and it can be sold to you”.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s edition of the African Tech Weekly podcast!

African Tech News Tidbits – Week of July 22nd 2012

July 21, 2012July 25, 2012 ~ Abou Kone ~ Leave a comment

raindolf owusu — Raindolf Owusu, creator of Anansi, the first African Operating System

Welcome back to another edition! Don’t forget that we still need your help with training the next batch of African Software Engineers. And in Sunday’s African Tech Weekly, we will be interviewing Raindolf Owusu, creator of the Anansi Operating System, the first African Operating System.

My story of the week: . Raindolf Owusu is a 3^rdlevel University Student of Methodist University Ghana. He runs OasisWebSoft a software developing Start-up which finally gave birth to Anansi Browser and OS. Anasi Operating System is an openSUSE 12.1 clone OS that was developed on Linux kernel which redefines the Unix desktop user experience. The Anansi OS experienced 3000 downloads within 2 weeks of launch. The OS is an open source software so it attract no fee for download.
Google has rolled out a new service in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya that lets Gmail users send and receive emails using the built-in SMS features of their mobile phones.According to Google Africa:

“You can now send and receive emails as SMS messages using your mobile phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has an internet connection, like Wifi or 3G. Gmail SMS works on any phone, even the most basic ones which only support voice and SMS.
Gmail SMS automatically forwards your emails as SMS text messages to your phone and you can respond by replying directly to the SMS. You can control the emails received by replying with commands such as MORE, PAUSE and RESUME. Additionally, compose a new email as an SMS and send to any email address recipient – who will find your message in the right email conversation thread!”.
Execellent read: 5 Tech Ecosystem Cultural Differences: East Africa vs Silicon Valley.
Six African countries have joined the growing number of African Virtual University (AVU) Member States, confirming that AVU offers an alternative solution to access to quality higher education on the continent.The countries which ratified the AVU Charter to become Member States include: Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, and South Sudan. African Virtual University (AVU) is a Pan African Intergovernmental Organization whose aim is to significantly increase access to quality higher education and training through the innovative use of Information and Communication Technologies.
According to TechTalkAfrica, Eskimi announced that they will be launching a mobile money marketing platform that will include special tools to acquire, educate, and research customers. Eskimi is the largest mobile-based social networking platform in Africa. The platform aims to connect Africans with other Africans. Not long ago, Eskimi hit 7 million customers and became the largest mobile social networking for Africans to meet new people in Africa. According to reports Eskimi largest market Nigeria, with more than half of it’s members calling Nigeria home. The company is recruiting sales teams in Nigeria and Ghana, and will be expanding in other African markets.
Airtel Burkina Faso, the largest mobile company in the country, has launched its mobile money platform named Airtel Money, or m-ligdi, in partnership with Ecobank. The platform allows consumers to top up their phones with air time, send and receive money, pay their critical utility bills, access their bank accounts.
Abidjan gears up for first Startup Weekend’s first
According to the British Council Director of Programmes Mutuku Nguli the Microsoft Academic Programmes is expected to train more than 20,000 school leaders and teachers across Sub Saharan Africa and provide more than 100,000 learners and communities with digital access, whilst also promoting literacy. “We formed this partnership (with Microsoft) based on the complementary expertise in technology and internationalism in education. We seek to combine expertise in order to increase innovative teaching and learning practices and better prepare young people for life and work in the 21st century”.
The story behind Kenya’s dominance in mobile money.
This September, g|Uganda Google’s event team is coming back to Kampala happening September 7-8 in Kampala and they’re mixing things up in a big way, from hosting our guests at a truly original venue (an amusement park!) to two full days of fresh content for our business and developer audiences.
The advent of new, cost-effective methods of communication – including Skype, WhatsApp Messenger and Facebook – in Zimbabwe has diluted the impact of Short Message Service (SMS) claims a report in The Standard. The advent of newly-available, cost-effective methods of communication platforms in Zimbabwe has diluted the impact of Short Message Service (SMS).Per second billed calls, together with these instant communication platforms, has empowered consumers with cheaper alternatives to the SMS, which is beginning to be viewed as older messaging system technology with limited functionality and high rates.
The African Union has quite an ambitious agenda to create in a near future a Pan African University of science, technology and innovation with the purpose to address the complete failure of most of the higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.
#SunuCause is Senegal’s first social web hashtag on Twitter. It aims to raise consciousness on various social issues as well as collect funds towards solving these issues. Its first successful campaign has concluded and resulted in the delivery of the skin ointment worth about $9 needed for a 2 month old with a skin condition. #sunucause is the brainchild of the same social activists behind the #sunu2012 tag which helped monitor the presidential elections of this year.
Moroccan manufacturer of computers DataPlus has launched the first touch pads “made in Morocco” under the brand name RMC, Jeune Afrique reported on Wednesday.The Moroccan tablets are assembled in Bouskoura (a few kilometers from Casablanca) from components imported mainly from South Korea. These touchpads have been commercialized online since early June by the distributor network of DataPlus and in the country’s supermarkets (including Carrefour and Metro).
Money Express Mobile is a new mobile money solution being rolled out in Senegal by the Chaka group. The Chaka Group, created in 1994 by the Senegalese entrepreneur Meissa Deguene Ngom, is comprised of three units: Chaka Computer, Call Me and Money Express. The case focuses on Money Express and its benefits for the poor. From the outset, Money Express’s goal was to be the market leader in transfer and remittance services for West African immigrants in Europe and the United States. To send money from abroad, Money Express clients need only a Senegalese or West African passport.
Osiris looks at all the entrants in the Senegalese social network and wonders about the difficulty that they have in signing up and retaining users. I liked their analysis in that they looked at China and Japan and how the local social networks have more users than Facebook and argue that maybe the problem is in the use of the French language that drives users to a larger and more established player like Facebook than to these unproven models (Walabook, Diousy, Setsima). They recommend that maybe a social network in Wolof would prove more engaging and relevant than a pale imitation of Facebook with some Senegalese flavor.

That is all for this week.

African Tech News Tidbits – Week of July 15th 2012

July 15, 2012July 15, 2012 ~ Abou Kone ~ Leave a comment

On this week’s African Tech Weekly show we will be discussing the exciting new Coders4Africa social campaign aimed at training 30 African programmers from September to December 2012, following a ‘real life project training model’, 30 African coders will create 5 mobile and web solutions that will impact their communities. Please participate and help make this project possible. This is what we are all about. Now for the African Tech News Tidbits for this week:

A sarcastic take on expat living in Nigeria, that can easily be expanded to other African countries. Nugget:

I’ll share a little story: A Nigerian family friend who is a senior engineer with a big foreign construction company went to the mansion of an influential Nigerian politician to carry out some repairs together with his young white junior assistant. As they entered the house, a daughter of the politician gave the white man a seat and ignored his black superior. The white man of course kindly explained that he was not in charge, but his boss who had been totally snubbed. Don’t ask me how the story ended. The moral of the story is that we love you more than we love ourselves.
Nokia’s Series 40 has overtaken Symbian as the most used mobile operating system in Nigeria for the first time, according to latest statistics from StatCounter. In case you don’t know, Series 40 is the world’s most widely used mobile platform and found in hundreds of millions of devices. Officially introduced in 1999, over 1.5 billion Series 40 devices have reportedly been sold as at January 2012. The trend is confirmed in Keyna as well with the Symbian OS saw about 30% decrease in usage while the Series 40 OS saw about 28% usage increase between April and June 2012 in the East African country. In a separate but related article, Nigeria’s ThisDay argues that “in Nigeria, most people are gradually shifting to the use of smartphones as the devices enable them perform several features that enhance business and personal lifestyles.” and documents the rise of smartphones in popularity with the users, in particular Android ones.
Google Maps for Africa gets better – walking directions launched!, bringing walking directions for 44 African countries! Now something that makes sense.
As part of its Africa-wide expansion plans, Nigeria’s premier content aggregation site, Sturvs has just been launched in Ghana and is expected to launch in Kenya in a few weeks. The new Ghana site aggregates content from news sources such as OMG Ghana, Modern Ghana and Ghana Business News.
Big news in the iNollywood wold is that iROKO Partners had before now formally asked the owners of Afrinolly to remove all its copyrighted content from iROKO’s YouTube channel, NollywoodLove and other channels or face legal action.
The South African government announced on July 8, that they would begin offering electronic visas in an effort to increase tourism and relations with other African nations such as Nigeria.
Researchers hope to harness mobile phone technology to improve water supplies in rural parts of Africa.A team from the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, proposes installing handpumps containing devices that automatically send text messages to local water engineers whenever pumps break down or dry up. The device, known as a waterpoint data transmitter, is fitted into handpump handles, and automatically monitors the number of strokes made when a pump is operated. This data, which provides estimates of daily and seasonal demand, including critical under- or over-usage information, is then transmitted to a central hub – thus informing engineers, cheaply and regularly, of the need for repairs, and helping to ensure a constant flow of water.The researchers will trial their idea, which is known as the ‘Smart Handpumps’ initiative, in 70 villages in Kenya next month (August). A prototype transmitter was successfully trialled in Zambia in 2011. Not everybody is a fan though, Wayan Vota instead suggests that instead of a mobile phone/pump combo, which will need power, top-up, and constant maintenance, what about just giving local villagers the phone number of the local water engineers?
Namibia: AfricaOnline, formerly MWeb Namibia, is rolling out WiFi hotspots in Windhoek, with more centres to follow. Marc Gregan, general manager of AfricaOnline, said the massive increase in users of mobile devices and laptops led to the decision to expand the product.
Africa: Has Continent Missed Domain Extension Opportunity? The African continent accounted for a paltry 13 English name applications. Peanuts compared to the enterprising Donuts Inc, who went out on a US$65million limb and applied for a staggering 307 new top level domains. The names that Donuts (Domain Nuts) have applied for run the generic gamut from .RUGBY to .CASINO, .FAMILY, .BLOG and even a controversial few like .SUCKS. If things turn out as it hopes, it will profit by making it affordable and simple for businesses and individuals to lay claim to their online territory.
Eritrea: New graduates from the Eritrean Institute of Technology (EIT) expressed readiness to back up national development programs. They also said that they would work hard to supplement the knowledge they have acquired with experience.
Kenya: Mobile Money Set to Change Kenya’s Retail Shopping
Kenya: Digital TV Will Be in Major Towns By December: LL the major towns in the country will have Digital Terrestrial Television signals by the end of 2012 as the country migrates from analogue TV, Information minister Samuel Poghisio said in Mombasa on Tuesday night. He said the government is committed to move to digital TV for the majority of the viewing population by December. “As a country we are determined that by the end of this year, we should have at least our four million viewers in the main cities already migrating to digital TV, with this we’ll be ahead of the 2015 deadline,” said Poghisio at the launch of Multichoice’s Gotv in Mombasa.
The big news in Senegal this week is the launch of the localized Senegalese Youtube, youtube.sn just like Ghana two weeks ago. A localized version of YouTube means that it will now be easier for users to find and view locally relevant videos on youtube.sn. For example, content uploaded by record label and music management Prince Arts Music or TV Production company Art Bi Manageman, or by other Senegalese users, will surface first in the browsing pages.
Samsung vs Huawei: The battle of the affordable smartphones begins: Huawei launched its sub-$100 Ideos X1 Android smartphone in Kenya about two years ago, many were filled with anticipation for the coming African smart phone revolution. The device did not disappoint, becoming the best-selling smartphone in Kenya in the first quarter of 2011. Till date, Huawei has reportedly sold over 350,000 Ideos phones in Kenya and counting. The Samsung Galaxy Pocket is Samsung’s latest push into the affordable African smartphone market.Both devices clearly target similar demographics and the smartphone market is set for a battle between the two devices in markets like Kenya. The Samsung Galaxy Pocket retails at about Ksh 9,999 (about $118) while Huawei’s Ideos X1 currently retails at Ksh 6,798 (about $80). To increase the Galaxy Pocket’s appeal among Kenyans, Samsung launched a ‘buy one get one free’ campaign in Kenya recently. During its Kenyan launch, it brought together a select group of students from Kenyan schools including University of Nairobi and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology amongst others to help launch the device.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dell Inc. Michael Dell made a surprise visit to Nigeria on Friday, June 15, 2012. This historic visit was in fulfillment of a promise made by Michael in September 2010 when Computer Warehouse Group visited the Dell Executive Briefing Center (EBC) in Texas with some customers from Nigeria, including Ecobank International. The appointment of Nigerian, Nnamdi Orakwue as Executive Director, Strategy and Operations by Dell may have in no small measure contributed to actualizing the trip.
Kenyan Elections Authority to Involve Hackers in Testing its Electronic Systems: The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is looking to replicate the experience of India which offered even upto Ksh 1.5 Million to hackers who would have penetrated the Voter Verifiable Paper Trial (VVPT) machine. The VVPT is an electronic voting machine (EVM) that prints out paper as proof of data transmitted through it.
With all the talk latey of open data, this right here is definitely cool: The IFPRI researchers in HarvestChoice, a joint program with the University of Minnesota, have therefore been busy generating new spatial data, harmonizing them with data compiled from a range of other sources, and making the entire collection available on the Harvest Choice website, along with tools for exploring the information in creative ways.

Get Test-Infected With Selenium

July 10, 2012July 10, 2012 ~ Abou Kone ~ Leave a comment

Get Test-Infected With Selenium – http://pulse.me/s/b7Ygy

African Tech News Tidbits: Week of July 8th 2012

July 8, 2012 ~ Abou Kone ~ Leave a comment

The sister program to the African Tech News Tidbits is now live. The African Tech Weekly on Coders4Africa Radio will, as previously announced be broadcast every Sunday at 1:00PM East/17:00GMT from Koun Fayah Koun Studios in Laurel MD. We feature the movers and shakers of the African Tech world, those you have heard about and mostly those that you should hear about. This Sunday we will feature Max Bonbhel, president of the Java User Group Africa, Senam Beheton, founder of tech hub EtriLabs, and Kwame Andah, Director of Communications for Coders4Africa, and of course, talk more about these #atntidbits right hurrr! Be sure to tune in, and the podcasts from the show.

A new College of Information Technology has been established in Liberia to offer an Associate Degree in Information Technology. The College, formerly known as Starz Institute of Technology, was granted license by the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Education and National Commission on Higher Education to operate as a degree-granting institution in Information Technology. The College, now referred to as the Starz College of Technology, is Liberia’s first degree-granting IT institution to offer degree in the discipline and other professional studies at the institute. Also the Starz College of Technology has developed an information technology program under the name “Starz for Kids” to provide IT skills training and ducation in various disciplines such as math, spelling, reading and Art, among others to Liberian youth. According to the administration of the school, the initiative will help to broaden the minds of Liberia’s future generation and help them gain interest in technology. The program is expected to operate in three different categories with students having access to computer and typing skills, Mathematics, English and spelling lessons along with educational and challenging computer games. The IT kid academy is first of its kind in the country for children between 5 and 15.
My favorite post of the week, from Techloy: Francis Onwumere, co-founder of Digital Craft Studios expands on how to scale the barriers to Collaboration in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem. Even though this is Nigeria in particular he talks about, I believe the recommendations and analysis apply to many other African tech eco-systems.
Enablis Entrepreneurial Network in collaboration with the NetHope Academy have launched the Growing IT Entrepreneurs project in Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana. Enablis and Nethope believe that IT skills are in high demand, generating opportunities for youth to participate in core aspects of the economy if they can get the necessary real-world entrepreneurial training and support, then they can create jobs and come up with innovative solutions.
Airtel announced the introduction of the fastest mobile Internet in Rwanda, with the launch of its 3.75G platform in the country. The improved technology will enhance multimedia functionality, high speed mobile broadband and internet access; allowing users to make video calls, watch live TV, send and receive emails and download music from the devices. This is the latest global HSPA+ technology with up to 21 Mbps speed, also being rolled out in Europe and the USA. It is the fastest and latest 3G available and will be enormously beneficial for a variety of users, which include large Corporates, Small or Medium Businesses and the Youth.
How to set off in Mobile Advertising in Africa – “Please Call Me”, WAP, Metrics & More: Good insight on mobile advertising techniques in Africa.
Cheki Africa Media runs cheki.co.ke, a Kenyan online car classifieds business. The company also has dedicated websites for Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. How we made it in Africa’s Dinfin Mulupi speaks to Carey Eaton, founder of Cheki Africa Media.
The $200 Nexus 7 Google Tablet is a Game-Changer for ICT Adoption in Africa by Wayan Vota.
SiliconAfrica: The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Innovation Foundation (AIF) have just announced the call for the 2013 Innovation Prize for Africa(IPA). Eligible are innovations by Africans for Africa. Africans in the Diaspora can also apply if their innovations are of significance to Africa. The winning proposal will be awarded a cash prize of USD100,000, with the two runner-ups receiving USD25,000. The registration deadline for the 2013 prize has been set for 31 October 2012. The ICTs priority are recognizes innovative ICTs applications that have demonstrated their potential in addressing key development challenges in African societies (e.g. in communities) or economy, including:– Software (application development, software design and development, enterprise application development, or platform development) and may include new development, or any other activities that result in software products for addressing a key development challenge.
- Mobile/Wireless Technologies that demonstrate how underprivileged people can use devices for social and economic benefits with the possibility to spawn micro-enterprises and generate employment.
- Local Language Software known as “localisation” requires definition and implementation of standards. These standards include character set encoding, keyboard (and keypad) layouts, collation/sorting sequence, locale and ICT terminology. In addition to definition of standards, applications also need to be developed for local language computing to support access and generation of local language content.
From Techloy: Another good analysis on why mobile money is having trouble taking off in Nigeria: Reasons include heavy regulation, bank led initiatives as opposed to telco led ones, a fragmented offerings market and significant infrastructural and information barriers, of which the contribution of Kenyan National Identity Cards to the identification process required in operating Mpesa stood up to me as quite a glaring example.
A guest post on TechMtaa discussing the various definitions that “local content” can take. Quite insightlful. One school of thought believes local content is web content that has its contextual origin in the region it is utilized or served from while the other means content hosted in data centers that are local to the country.
Samsung Electronics South Africa has announced that it will assemble some of its computer monitors in South Africa through its assembly plant in Longmeadow Business Estate East in Edenvale, Gauteng.Samsung is looking to cut costs on monitors sold in Africa as well as optimise on the quality of products meant for the continent’s market.
The Cameroonian government and mobile operator MTN have signed an agreement to bring fiber optic cable internet access to Cameroon through the WACS cable system which already connects quite a few African countries. A judicial entity will be set up to manage the access in conjunction with the mobile operator.
Calculateur 28 is a new SMS application operating in Senegal, Gabon and Burkina Faso allowing women to keep track of important dates in their cycles, especially fertility periods.
According to some Kenyan banks, Mpesa could be causing a “financial crisis” and some sought to have the company shut down. But digging down in the fact reveals that this was a move by a cartel of banks to stamp out a pwerful competitor.
Burkina Faso’s government is thinking of a strategy to create a paperless administration.
Cote d’Ivoire: A local union UNATEC-CI made of communication technicians and a local company 2tehm Technologie have signed an agreement to retrain data entry personnel who are at risk of losing their jobs as webmasters.2Tehm will create a website that will operate for three years and be used as a training tool. This will be a good way to prevent job losses by allowing this personnel to adapt to the new technological environment.
Koumba Boly Barry, Burkina’s Education minister wants to tackle the country’s 70% illiteracy rate and bring it down to 60% by introducing educational tablets in the classroom through a joint project by the World Bank, UNICEF, the African Development Bank and the Burkinabe government.
June 28th 2012 in Cinsanke, Togo, the fiber optic lines of Ghana, Togo and Burkina were joined together as a result of a collaboration between Ghana’s Vodafone, Burkina’s Onatel, and Togo Telecom. This new connection has a 350 Gbs bandwidth and will increase bandwidth for all three concerned countries.