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PesaPay Could Disrupt Kenya’s mPayment Sector Through Its Open Source Model – Open Innovation Could Outpace Incumbents

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PesaPay is a mobile payment service that enables instant online payments from the mobile phone. We allow businesses to cash out immediately on payments received on their phones. Possibly, this will go beyond the delay customers see in mPayment system in Africa. Also, the open innovation model could be quicker to ramp us development and allow 3rd party players to come on-board.

 

In a blog entry of this company, the following are reasons to embrace this company:

  • PesaPay is an open source payment gateway that is free for download and use.
  • PesaPay allows users free access to the source code hence enabling users to modify and futher develop the system to their own advantage.
  • PesaPay is a free transaction service and no commission is charged for any payments transacted using this gateway.
  • PesaPay is secure, direct and instantaneous thus allowing users to carry out transactions without the need for any intermediaries or agents.
  • By embracing an Open Source Movement through its social platform CrowdPesa, collaboration between users and developers is encouraged.  Also by sharing code between developers, technical progress is promoted as developments are shared within the wider development community.
PesaPay seems to understand a whole lot in the creation of tech companies. It seems that they have thought out the process of future growth and scalability. So, they chose open source application, as they noted in the blog post referred above.

 

One of the big problems with the proprietary software industry is that they build solutions that are best for them to sell, and that doesn’t always match up with what is best for the customer to use. In open source, the customer can get directly involved and that always means better software for the customer.
They also seem to have gone prime time with already market impact. They have piloted the app in Whive.com which is a social media platform for Africa as well as using the system to collect registration fees for the Nairobi 2011 IPO48 Investors boot camp which they participated.   Find the IPO48 Kenya video pitch below.

Airtel Nigeria And Cross Rivers Government Launch Rural Access Initiative

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Barely a month after it signed a landmark agreement with the Government of Cross River State, leading telecommunications service provider, Airtel Nigeria has launched a new initiative to enhance access to telecommunication products and services in the state.

 

Code named Project Sunny, the initiative is designed to strengthen distribution structures in the state
through the supply of motor bikes and other incentives to local entrepreneurs to enable them provide access to telecommunications products and services as well as act as customer touch-points.

 

Airtel said the project will ultimately result in enhanced customer satisfaction, filling of distribution gaps, improved network quality arising from greater feedback and quicker problem resolution and greater economic well being of the areas.

 

During the launch of the programme today in Calabar, the State Capital, motor bikes, helmet, megaphones, parasols, and SIM registration machines were presented by Airtel to the beneficiaries.  The Cross Rivers State government, which is participating through the Micro-finance and Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA), an agency of the State that is responsible for rural empowerment and
development, made available N50,000.00 (fifty thousand naira) for each of them to buy stock.

 

Speaking at the launch of the programme in Calabar the State capital, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Rajan Swaroop, who was represented by the Regional Operations Director (South Region), Godfrey Efeurhobo, expressed the company’s delight to be associated with the government of the State in its quest to lift the rural economy and enhance the quality of life generally.

 

Swaroop added that the partnership with Micro Finance and Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA) is in line with the new economic vision of the Nigerian government to empower investors and  entrepreneurs and ultimately create more jobs for Nigerians.

 

According to him, “this is one in the series of many initiatives that Airtel is embarking on to demonstrate its commitment to its recent Memorandum of Understanding with the state government.

 

The launch of Project Sunny comes a month after Airtel Nigeria and the Cross Rivers State Government signed a landmark agreement for the provision of integrated telecommunications services and for a collaboration that will support the government in various areas of development.

 

At the occasion, Airtel Nigeria’s management and the Government of Cross Rivers State re-stated their commitment to work together in a transformation agenda that will take Cross River State to the next level.

FUTA Student Hanged Himself Because His Father Disowned Him For Poor Result

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FUTA was top of our ranking in 2011 Federal Universities of Technology  Nigerian college category. There have been spirited comments to us. But we are saddened to share this one which started with thanks and praise and ended as follows:

 

At the moment though, FUTAland is cast in bitterness… a 400L(Mechanical Engineering) Student of FUTA was found Dead with a Laptop and Bottled Water in his Hotel Room in Ibadan after hanging himself.

Why?He killed himself because FUTA sent his result home and his father disowned him!

 

Android Projected As Top Mobile Ad OS By 4Q2011, Says InMobi

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InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, has noted that Android will be the top global mobile ad platform by the end of the year.  The company  served 112.5 billion mobile advertising impressions across the globe, a growth of 22% over the previous quarter, and reports that smartphone growth is the primary driver, outpacing the growth rate of advanced phone ads by two to one.

 

Android continues to make a significant global impact, capturing an additional 1.9 share points in the quarter to reach 16.6% ad share.Nokia OS and Symbian OS continue to be the top performing mobile platforms globally, with 19.6% and 19.0% ad share respectively, although their market share has continued to steadily diminish.

 

Top 3 OS Systems: % Share Available Impressions – Global
Quarter Ending April 2011 Quarter Ending July 2011 Pt. Chg
Nokia OS 20.8% 19.6% -1.3
Symbian OS 19.1% 19.0% -0.1
Android 14.7% 16.6% +1.9

 

James Lamberti, VP Global Research & Marketing, InMobi, comments:

 

“Given Android’s ongoing growth around the globe, it’s not surprising to see Google announce its strategic move to acquire Motorola Mobility. At the current growth trends, Android is expected to become the top mobile platform in the ad ecosystem by the end of the year and Google is clearly protecting it from competitive threats with the IP assets of Motorola Mobility.”

 

InMobi is the world’s largest independent global mobile advertising network. InMobi provides advertisers, developers, and publishers with a uniquely global mobile advertising solution. InMobi is a venture-backed with marquee investors including: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. The company has offices in London, San Francisco, Bangalore, Tokyo, Mumbai and Singapore. To learn more, please visit: www.inmobi.com

Lessons From UK Riots – The Difference Between British Students And Their Nigerian Counterparts Is The Similarity

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People, we are not crazy with that title. It is already hot in Lagos and we have to send this message after reading one piece in Guardian. That reminded us those days of the tutelage of Sani Abacha where it was common for schools to close just because one man was about to fly through the air.

 

But this post is not about Abacha. It is about BBC. Those days during riots BBC will barrage Nigerian students. They used to say in the BBC Africa Service or whatever that Nigerian students needed civility. They were right as burning cars, labs, libraries, hostels  and other facilities just to explain you do not have enough of them will not make you have them. It is sheer stupidity to stop free men and women on the road who might not have entered a university one day in their lives and you ask them to come out their cars.

 

You then pour fuel on their cars and there the cars are gone. Why? You want to explain that government is not funding education. But the man you burnt his car cares not. He is not government and he might not have finished secondary school. Perhaps, because he was driving one rickety car, he was confused by the poor students as belonging!

 

So, once BBC gets that. They will feast on it. And Nigerian students were not advanced – they lacked civility!

 

Uhuuuu Britain, your students under the stress most of those Nigerians encountered daily, those days,  did exactly the same. In short if not for the prayers of Nigerians they would have killed Prince Charles and the second wife. Yes, Charles got a lot of good friends in Nigeria and they liked him. The first riot would have messed him up. We than God nothing bad happened to him. The Lord will protect him from the hands of angry British who suddenly woke up to the reality of electing an extremist as a Prime Minister.

 

But this last riot showed one thing: under similar circumstances, most humans are the same. When you take a British child to Lagos and he stays there for years with no hope, he could be acculturated. In the 3rd world, yet glorified 1st world Britain because they have roads, light and water, British students have shown they can act terribly bad when put in the same conditions as their Nigerian counterparts.

 

So the difference between Nigerian students and the British ones is the similarity between them. It is all talk when you are not experiencing it. It is like New Orleans where Americans turned to ghettos dwellers and started acting like Sudanese beggars. Those civilities, under stress, vanished. Imagine if the Hurricane Katrina condition is daily, those attitude would become  a normal norm. That is life – man is just the same, only environments make us look different in how the society acts. If not ask David Cameron why he wants to monitor British Internet traffic, because he wants to prevent riots, which the Chinese also want to do!