Author: Francis Muli

Small and Medium-sized enterprises are set to benefit from a software package deal from Indian-based tech giant Zoho. The Zoho Africa Digital Enabler (ZADE) package comprises 10 software packages and will be available to SMEww in Kenya at a discounted rate of Sh585 per month. Zoho anticipates that its solutions will overcome the pricing barrier to technology adoption that businesses currently experience. “The plan is to remove the technology adopting barrier and help SMEs kick start their digital transformation journey, that will, in turn, help them stay nimble and quickly adapt to changing market conditions,” said Hyther Nizam, Zoho Middle…

Young people have been urged to apply for the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. Past beneficiaries of the government fund have urged their counterparts to apply for various state-funded programs available to realize their dreams. Among the available projects are the Uwezo Fund, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and Ajira Digital which are designed to help women and youth to access affordable loans to start businesses. Four beneficiaries of these projects took advantage of the opportunity to educate the youths during the weekly interactive virtual meeting that Government Spokesperson Colonel Cyrus Oguna organized and presided over. They gave testimonies about how…

TikTok is back on the spotlight for its data invasion practices. A report recently showed that even though the video-making company had reached a deal to store its data with cloud computing company, Oracle, its employees in China were still able to access data belonging to TikTok users in the US. US Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr has ublished an open letter urging Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores citing a “pattern of surreptitious data practices”. This specifically refers to how the company shares user data with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. “TikTok is not what…

Although the popularity of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has waned over the last couple of months, Meta is rolling out new display options on Facebook. Subscribers will now be able to post custom NFTs bearing a ‘Digital collectibles’ tag on the platform. Profiles will also have a dedicated section to display NFTs. Once other users tap on the NFTs, they will be able to see the ownership of the artwork and a brief description about the piece. Read: Meta Unveils Requirements for Kenyans Placing Political Ads on its Platforms Facebook will be able to support Ethereum, Polygon, and all of the…

Social media platform, Snapchat has launched a paid version on its app. The app had already hinted at the development of the paid version earlier in the month as it sought to expand its revenue sources. Earlier this month, messaging app Telegram launched a paid premium version starting at Sh588 ($4.99) per month. Snapchat will reportedly charge Sh470 ($3.99) a month for the premium option. Social media platforms have been under pressure to come up with alternative revenue sources due to the economic pressure that has resulted in several companies slashing their advertising budgets. Snapchat premium will be launched in…

Three Health based organizations have partnered to launch an investment program targeting African e-health start-ups. Southbridge A&I, Salient Advisory, and SCIDaR are set to launch a $7 million (Sh824,950,000) fund dubbed i3 to provide 30 African e-health start-ups with funding and support each year. i3 seeks to identify early-stage or growth-stage innovators from across the continent who can have a tangible impact on public health, whether through availability, accessibility, quality, or transparency of health supply chains. Read: Gov’t to Roll Out Health Digital Platform Targeting Kenyans in Rural Areas The program, which has been sponsored by the Gates Foundation will see…

Mobile phone prices are set to go up this Friday after a new duty takes effect. The Finance Act 2022 imposed a 10 percent excise duty on imported cellular phones as well as a Sh50 excise duty on every imported SIM card. The duties were introduced last month as an addition to the original Finance Bill 2022 submitted by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani during the budget reading. “Excise duty on importation of cellular phones shall be at 10 percent of the excisable value,” reads the Act which President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law last week. Read: Google’s Device Lock Controller…

Google has rolled out Gmail offline mode for all its users. The feature will allow users to read, respond to and search their email messages without connecting to the internet. The feature will come in handy for users in areas with poor network or with no internet. According to an announcement on Google’s support page, users who wish to access their email accounts on offline mode will have to access it and activate it on the chrome browser by visiting mail.gmail.com. For workspace users, admins will be required to change the settings to allow access through offline mode. Read: Gmail Enables…

Safaricom is rolling out an approval feature seeking to put a stop to fraudulent reversals. The company said recipients will now be required to approve M-Pesa reversals before they are concluded. In the new feature, an M-Pesa reversal will be immediately followed by an automated call from the telco to the recipient, asking them to approve or decline. The cash will be held by Safaricom and if the recipient approves the reversal, the cash will be released back to the sender. If they decline the reversal, then they will need to prove their cases The move follows increased cases of…

AirBnB banned house parties in 2020 as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19. The company has now announced that it is permanently banning house parties after it proved successful in supporting the hosts. “Over time, the party ban became much more than a public health measure,” said the company in a blog post. “It developed into a bedrock community policy to support our Hosts and their neighbors.” The ban prohibits users from holding disruptive parties and events including those those advertised on social media. It describes disruptive parties as those that attract complaints from neighbours. Since the implementation…

Telkom and Buy-Now-Pay-Later company Lipa Later have teamed up to provide Kenyans with a product financing solution for the purchase of smartphones. Through the partnership, the companies are looking to equip more people with smartphones through affordable monthly instalments. “We are excited to announce this partnership as it speaks to our belief that access to Mobile Data is a fundamental human right. This is due to its strategic potential to progressively address digital inclusion; ensuring the benefits of the Internet and digital technologies are available to more Kenyans, consequently empowering the digital economy,” Telkom CEO, Mugo Kibati said. According to…

Tech education and coding accelerator, Moringa school, has raised funds towards its expansion program out of Kenya. The undisclosed investment by Proparco follows a recent seed funding by DOB Equity and Sh1.1 billion ($9.5 million) funding by Mastercard Foundation. The learning institution channeled the recent investment towards the training of Software Engineers in Ghana and soon Nigeria, with plans to scale to other African countries within the next 12 years. “The investment comes at an exciting time for Moringa as the institution expands to Ghana and Nigeria. We are keen to leverage on this partnership to train many more students…

The Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is set to adopt the use of comical illustrations to showcase select crime scenes in their social media reporting. The DCI said the moved is aimed at informing, educating and building relationships with the public. “Beginning this coming Sunday DCI brings you illustrations of select crime scenes to inform, educate and entertain our audience, as we strive to better our relationship with the public and give the agency a human face,” the DCI announced on its social media pages. BEGINNING THIS COMING SUNDAY DCI BRINGS YOU ILLUSTRATIONS OF SELECT CRIME SCENES TO INFORM, EDUCATE…

Google will start migrating all users on its messaging service, Hangouts to Chat before it is permanently discontinued in November. The company pulled the plug for Hangouts users on Google Workspace in February, and has started prompting personal email users to switch from Hangouts to Chat, which is now the company’s default messaging service. The tech giant says it will keep prompting users to switch the service until July and will warn users at least one month in advance before it starts redirecting the Hangouts website to Chats before November when it will shut down the service. The migration is…

Kenyan businesses have one month to switch to the upgraded electronic tax registers. Failure to do so will attract a Sh1 million fine or a jail term not exceeding three years. The new internet enabled ETRs will grant the Kenya Revenue Authority real-time access to invoices. “If a VAT registered taxpayer does not comply within the specified period then we invoke section 53 of the VAT Act which says that you will either be fined Sh1 million or three years imprisonment or both if you don’t comply within the specified timeline,” KRA’s chief manager in charge of Tax Invoice Management…