Author: Cyrus

M-Shwari which is a mobile banking solution riding on Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform has seen magnificent rise in use since launch in November. According to Safaricom and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), the platform has seen more than Ksh 976 million banked through it and Ksh 123 million loaned to users. Most of the users of the platform are between the ages of 26 30 years with 29.71% of the subscribers in the age group actively using the platform while those aged between 31-35 years are second at 24.73%. Ksh 970 is the average savings amount and Ksh 1,092 is the…

Communications Commission of Kenya CCK has announced that it will go ahead with its plans to switch off all unregistered SIM-cards in Kenya. The regulator has revealed that the strong one month media campaign has seen the SIM-card registration rise from 70% of subscribers to 80.4% in just one month. Safaricom has the highest percentage of SIM-card registration at 85.2% while Orange Kenya lag behind at just 63.7% as at 28 December 2012. Total subscribers in the country is now at 30.8 million of which only 6 million are not registered. CCK has promised that it will move to switch…

So one of Nation Media Group’s senior writers, Murithi Mutiga, has got angered by my criticism of the media house that he has decided to dedicate more than half of his lousy column to attack me. It might also be that desperation for his article to be so shared on social media drove him to have me featured as the subject in his column. It is not clear if Mutiga is so personally angered by my Tweets and Facebook posts or he is also acting on behalf of the media house. It is not usual for media houses to allow…

  It is the season of political campaigns in Kenya. The media in the country is far from neutral. The loyality is between the main contenders  Uhuru Kenyaatta or Raila Odinga. Daily Nation which is largely owned by the moneyed elite who support Uhuru’s candidature did a blunder today of photoshopping the image of Uhuru Kenyatta’s running mate, William Ruto, on to a photo of a crowd at yesterday’s CORD rally. The embarrassing image has awaken debate on social media on the neutrality of the Kenyan media. Nation Media has totally refused to apologise saying that the images are different. The…

Orange and China Mobile have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which the two telecoms giants hopes that will accelerate the commercialization of mobile contactless services – Near Field  Communication (NFC) – by integrating standardized technical protocols based on the SIM card into their respective services. NFC services facilitate transactions by allowing users to purchases goods and services simply by  swiping their phone over an electronic reader. By adopting  internationally recognized standards for embedding the secure technical  protocols directly into the SIM-card, the two operators will participate  in the development of a market in which users can access NFC services  regardless…

The December 2012 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report titled SMARTer2020, has revealed that ICT can cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 16.5%, saving up to $1.9 trillion USD annually. The potential reduction is more than 16% higher than the estimated saving in a study conducted in 2008. The research identified Ericsson’s mobile money as a potential ICT-enabled solution for emission reduction. The report indicated that large amounts of emissions are generated as a result of unnecessary travel to access banking services in Africa. This includes emissions from the use of private and public transportation and, in the long run, additional road…

Safaricom and Commercial Bank of Africa launched M-Shwari just 3 weeks ago. But as of yesterday, the two companies have netted as much a Ksh 150 million in savings while Commercial Bank of Africa have an additional 645, 000 in clients. Acording to a joint statement from Safaricom and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), the service which rides on Safaricom’s M-PESA platform and launched on November 27th is seeing an average of 40,000 Kenyans sign up to the service daily. This makes the service one of of the most compelling financial services propositions in recent years. Isaac Awuondo, CBA’s Group Managing Director…

With the recent reducti0n of MTR by CCK, Airtel Kenya is introducing new bundled voice call packages which are more cost friendly to the subscriber. The Pamoja Bundles which are effective today, 13th Dec 2012, will see Airtel Kenya subscribers gain up to 2.5 times more talk time depending on the bundle they choose. Airtel Kenya looks to satisfy the different segments of subscribers with personalised call packages. The calls cost between 2 cents and 5 cents per second depending on the package chosen by the subscriber. Daily Bundle Cost (Kshs) Seconds Customer call Rate cents/sec More times Value…

Having censored YouTube since 2009 when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was controversially returned to power, Iran has now launched its own version of YouTube. The country say that the content on YouTube is “inappropriate” and so the new website targets the Persian speaking users. The new video sharing network is called ‘Mehr,’ meaning ‘affection’ in Farsi, also has its own Facebook page dedicated to providing links to its content. The page also provide Iranian music videos. The country also censors Facebook, Twitter, some blogs as well as most porn sites. The country has also vowed to create “own intranet,” accusing the current…

Bharti Airtel is trying to buy a mobile operator in South Africa, three years after its failed bid to partner with the giant MTN, according to South Africa’s Sunday Times. The weekly magazine quoting “an unnamed source” close to Bharti Airtel Africa, said the company is looking to acquire either 8ta or Cell C as it seek expansion on the African continent. Bharti Airtel bought the Zain owned entities in Africa after failing to clinch a deal with MTN. The source quoted by Sunday Times believe that Bharti Airtel would go for Cell C as 8ta is still struggling to gain market in the…

A well placed source within Naspers board has indicated that there are internal discussions to close Mocality. The source claims that Naspers top echelon is worried that since launch, Mocality is neither making money nor have a real business model. The daily deals arm of the business directory service, Mocality Deals is also yet to start making money. Naspers is also planning to stop marketing other e-commerce products under MIH Internet. Many of the regional MIH staff will also go jobless in the next month or two. Among those facing the sack are Neil Schwartzmann who has been the CEO…

Apple has announced the impending availability of its iconic iPhone 5 in more countries and Kenya is included. The phone which will be exclusively available through Orange Kenya is one of Apple’s best. It is lighter than the iPhone 4S and feels more premium unlike the Samsung Galaxy S3 which feels cheap and fades like an entry level smartphone. Apart from Kenya, the iPhone 5 will be available in more than 50 additional countries by the end of December 2012. The iPhone 5 was unveiled to the US shoppers in September. The phone is currently available in more than 40…

A farmer-turned-blogger who claimed that she was driven from her farm in Tanzania by one of East Africa’s promiment and well oiled media tycoons, Reginald Mengi, has won a landmark in the case brought against her by the media tycoon. Through her blog, Silverdale Farm, Sarah Hermitage documented what she went through in trying to maintain her farm in Tanzania. She document various cases of abuse of power, corruption, intimidation and violence at the hand of Tanzanian authorities and at the instigation of Reginald Mengi and others. Mengi who owns the IPP Media group eventually took her to a British…

So Safaricom launched its much rumoured product, mShwari (should we write it as MShwari, Mshwari or mShwari?), at an event which lasted for half a day at the Prestigious Windsor Golf and Country Club. At the event, Safaricom touted the product as “the next big thing” after m-Pesa. mShwari is a savings and credit product targeted at the low income earners. Users would be able to save from a minimum of just Ksh 1 and qualify to borrow from a minimum of Ksh 100 depending on the credit rating of the user. The credit rating of the user will be generated…

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. Albert Einstein once said, “to raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and it marks real advancement.” These words contain in them a message and a philosophy that we at Safaricom uphold; that to truly add value to the lives of our customers we have to be innovative. The launch of a new product is commonplace for many companies. For us, a new product means new solutions, new possibilities, and real advancement. For Safaricom, our satisfaction is in seeing our customers’ lives transformed…