This is a Short Note.

9Mobile (nee Etisalat Nigeria) is making its API available for Nigerian developers. This is certainly a novel idea as that will make people building solutions in the telecom industry to adopt 9Mobile. It is a new way of executing customer acquisition and 9Mobile could find success by deepening collaboration with the developer community. The result could be customers of the future.

Startups in Nigeria can now access access 9Mobile’s APIs, this follows a partnership between the telecoms giant and Africa’s Talking, a Pan-African company focused on providing developers with an easy and reliable way to access telecommunication infrastructure.

9Mobile will provide access to telecom apps while Africa Talking will provide a sandbox environment for developers to use while learning how to work with the APIs as well as testing their applications before moving into production.

The Director, Digital Business, 9mobile, Adia Sowho, said, “We at 9mobile are delighted to partner with Africa’s Talking in the bid to support Nigerian software developers and SMEs as they build viable and scalable businesses. This partnership will provide quality and affordable mobile communication tools like two-way SMS and USSD APIs that they can embed into their day to day business activities to improve their marketing capabilities and interact easily with their customers.

What 9Mobile is doing could be industry defining if they push it at scale. The implication is that no one wants to deal directly with telcos because they are high up there and few entrepreneurs can get access to them. So you have this solution that could have been integrated in a telco’s network, but you have no means of working with them. With what 9Mobile is trying to do, making its API available, we can see a new phase of innovation at the base of the telecom sector in Nigeria.

If 9Mobile has this mindset, it can change its fortune faster than many could anticipate. By releasing the APIs to developers, expect some apps and solutions to work better in 9Mobile networks when compared with competitors.   I know that in cpanel web hosting, 9Mobile is among the networks that work without issues. In our web hosting business, we recommend 9Mobile to clients. Some other networks have their problems, locking customers from their emails, most times.

Simple things matter and this way of thinking could be the redesign that 9Mobile needs. Also, it will be good for the country, as entrepreneurs can build better products and solutions, that work seamlessly with the telecom infrastructure.

This is a Short Note.

Greetings. A lady asked me a question this morning via LinkedIn: Would you invest in bitcoin, the crytocurrency? She smartly waved all legal issues as I do not offer insights when there are potential risks. 

This is what I told her: Greetings. I will not invest in bitcoin but I will invest in a product based on blockchain which powers bitcoin. In my new eBook  which is out tomorrow, I explain . Why people can make money from lottery, I do not think it is a good way to build wealth. I see bitcoin as lottery. However, blockchain is a solid technology. There are many ways companies are using blockchain.

A Blockchain is a tamper-proof record of transactions distributed across all participants in a Blockchain network. Via digital authentication and verification, the technology removes intermediaries and reduces transaction time and fraud. In the financial sector, companies like SWIFT and banks are developing Blockchain projects for payments transactions. The potential of Blockchain however, extends to other areas. Estonia recently partnered with Bitnation to digitize citizen identities using Blockchain. While these are early days, Blockchain has immense potential in Africa given its massive development challenges.

In the book, I explain the interface of IoT, blockchain and AI with fusion of cloud to drive the next level of prosperity in Africa.  I have many cases to show how new generation of makers can hit big. The application of IoT will deliver new value to Africa.

The Internet of Things (IoT) uses an array of sensors to capture real time data from a range of sources including computing devices, objects and people. It allows users to monitor and manage objects remotely and make data-driven decisions. Lack of actionable data is a major challenge for emerging markets. IoT can help address this challenge. ThingWorx for example, uses sensors to capture data on crop fertility across various parameters and advise farmers on maximizing productivity. Similarly in healthcare, Kaa operates an IoT platform to remotely monitor patient health statistics and predict ailments.

Now, I ask the house: will you invest in bitcoin? I personally do not support bitcoin. But I am 100% in for blockchain. You will be better working on blockchain than playing lottery with bitcoin.

This piece was shared on LinkedIn but expanded here.

This is a Short Note.

More  than 400 election observers including the European Union, African Union, and the United States, felt that the Kenyan presidential election which took place in August was credible. In short, former US secretary of state John Kerry said the election was “free, fair and credible.”

The commission has also set a state-of-the-art media centre, with at least 50 internet-enabled computers.

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry termed as “extra-ordinary” the organisation of the IEBC after he visited Bomas and held a morning meeting with Mr Chebukati.