East Africa
Central Bank of Kenya Lengthens its COVID-19 Emergency Mobile Money Measures
Sourced from Forbes. The Central Bank of Kenya announced that it will extend the measures placed on mobile money transactions put forth back in March. Charges for mobile money transactions of up to KES1000 ($9,39) and the withdrawal of money between bank accounts and mobile money wallets. These emergency measures were put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in Kenya. The initial announcement had the measures in place until 1 July 2020, but now the Central Bank is increasing the duration of the measures by 5 months until the end of the year, 31 December 2020. The Central Bank of Kenya says that in line with these measures: /* custom css */ .tdi_3_5fc.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_5fc.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } There will be no charge for mobi...
How Rwanda is Encouraging an Entire Generation of Women in Tech
Sourced from Women in Tech Africa. In 2020, Rwanda was the only African country ranked in the top 10 of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report. It ranked in the top four in the Report’s political empowerment category, in recognition of the high proportion of Rwandese women lawmakers and ministers. Rwanda, therefore, seemed a natural fit for a 2018 pilot programme of the African Development Bank’s Coding for Employment initiative, with Nigeria, Kenya, the Ivory Coast and Senegal. The Coding for Employment flagship programme is establishing 130 ICT centres for excellence in Africa, training 234,000 youths for employability and entrepreneurship to create over 9 million jobs. Hendrina C. Doroba, Manager in the Education, Human Capital and Employment Division at the Bank, explains ...
PLWSCD are at Higher Risk of Complications when Infected with COVID-19
Persons Living with Sickle Cell Disease (PLWSCD), are at a higher risk of getting infected with COVID-19, Kenya’s Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Dr Rashid Aman says. The CAS noted that PLWSCD are more likely to get severe illness if they get infected due to their impaired immunity resulting from the blood disorder and urged them to strictly observe the precautionary preventive measures for COVID-19. “During this period of Coronavirus pandemic, persons living with sickle cell disease are advised, to ensure they keep a minimum of a one-month supply of medication at all times. In addition, they should consult their healthcare providers should they experience COVID-19 symptoms,” he notes. Sickle Cell is a genetic disease characterized by a change in the shape of a red blood cell,...
How Startups Will Impact the Real Estate Industry
These days, most entrepreneurs are opting to use co-working spaces as opposed to renting out traditional offices and committing to leases. This means that there is a growing opportunity for people who want to provide these co-working environments in what’s called space as a service. A co-working space provider is capable of taking the risk on behalf of entrepreneurs, they can (with enough entrepreneurs on the floor) afford to pay for a long lease to occupy a building or office, something that a sole entrepreneur might not be able to do. In Kenya, current space as a service options for entrepreneurs includes Nairobi Garage, iHub, The Kijiji, Nailab, Ikigai and iBiz Africa. These co-working environments ensure that they take care of providing the services that entrepreneurs would ...
Kenya Loses Over $900-Million to Illicit Trade According to Report
Sourced from Business Daily Africa. The Anti-Counterfeit Authority of Kenya has released findings of the National Baseline Survey on the extent of counterfeit and other forms of illicit trade in the country. According to the study conducted between October 2019 and February 2020, the Government revenue lost in 2018 stood at KES102.99-billion up from KES101.23-billion in 2017. Around $900-million each year. From the 16 sectors of the economy that the study concentrated on, the most affected were building, mining and construction. These three sectors were specifically and heavily affected by counterfeiting with a share of 23.37% in value of total illicit trade, followed by energy, electrical and electronics with a share of 14.67% in 2018. The sectors where most government revenues were lost ...
Tourism Suffers as COVID-19 Restrictions Throttle Safari Industry
Sourced from And Beyond. SafariBookings.com, an online marketplace for African safari tours, recently ran its fourth monthly survey among 308 safari tour operators. The survey’s aim was to acquire a detailed understanding of the impact in the safari industry from the downturn in travel associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The results were in line with the previous three surveys – an overwhelming number of tour operators are suffering from a decline in bookings of at least 75%. A terrible figure for an industry in which so many people rely on in East and Southern Africa. As one operator from Tanzania says, “We have not received any bookings from potential clients since the COVID-19 spread worldwide.” And it’s a similar story in neighbouring Kenya, “At the moment customers are not willi...
Huawei Y7p Users in Kenya Discover Android 10 Update
Image sourced from Huawei Huawei Y7p users in Kenya were shocked to discover that their devices were eligible for Android 10 in the form of an EMUI 10 update. “Yesterday, I got a notification that I can download Android 10 for the Huawei Y7p. The Huawei Y7p was launched by Huawei Kenya back in April this year and it was their first phone in the market without Google Services. I was not expecting this update at all and it was a nice surprise,” writes Kiruti Itimu for Techweez. Before purchasing this device, Huawei wanted users to note that it’s one of the first devices to come with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), Huawei’s new ecosystem. And while HMS looks and feels similar to Android – it works differently and you may have to take a few extra steps when setting up your new smartphone. Luckil...
Energy Leaders Give Insight on the Future of Kenya’s Oil and Gas Transition
Sourced from Construction Review Online. Kenya’s oil and gas industry is in a state of transition, as its major oil and gas development — Blocks 10BB and 13T in Turkana — has been put on hold, with Tullow Oil submitting a notice of force majeure to the Kenyan Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, citing complications from COVID-19. Meanwhile, Uganda’s Lake Albert Project is moving ahead, with Total announcing plans to acquire Tullow Oil’s stake in the project. The massive development in Uganda, which is set to include a pipeline and refinery, could easily have an impact on regional oil and gas developments and opportunities. In a webinar, Kenyan energy industry leaders shared strategies and thoughts on how Kenya’s oil and gas sector can deal with the implications caused by COVID-19. According ...
Safaricom Eyes an Opportunity to Expand into Ethiopia
Sourced from CGTN. Safaricom PLC is planning to extend its reach into Ethiopia, Kenya’s northern neighbour. Although not initially successful with its first few attempts, new changes within the Ethiopian government may prove beneficial for the mobile carrier to finally establish a presence within the country. Last month, the Ethiopian government said that it would be impossible for Safaricom’s M-PESA service to have any space in the market. The Ethiopian central bank about reiterated that no foreign financial institutions would be allowed to offer mobile money services in the country. Now, the good news for Safaricom is that the company was recently offered a window to buy into Ethio Telecom, the country’s mass-monopoly provider whose privatisation process is currently underway. This is on...
Check Point Software Partners Strathmore University to Promote Digital Skills in Kenya
Sourced from Business News Daily Cybersecurity solutions company, Check Point Software has announced that its education initiative has partnered with Strathmore University in Kenya to provide a comprehensive cybersecurity curriculum to students, bridging the digital skills gap and also creating a safer local cyber landscape. According to research, the number of unfilled cybersecurity roles now stands at 4.07 million professionals globally. What causes alarm for those within the security market across Africa is that the ICT courses across a range of disciplines are still underdeveloped, as well as the skills required to operate, support and understand the complexities of next-generation technologies and threats. Introducing the Check Point SecureAcademy To keep up with the current thr...
Tanzania summons US official over coronavirus warning
Tanzania said on Tuesday it had summoned the top official at the US embassy to object to an advisory that warned of “exponential growth” of Covid-19 cases in the east African nation. The embassy’s “health advisory” published earlier this month contained inaccurate information, the foreign ministry said in a statement. The advisory reported, for instance, that “many hospitals” in Dar es Salaam, the economic capital, “have been overwhelmed in recent weeks”. This claim “is not true and could cause panic among Tanzanians and foreigners”, the foreign ministry’s statement said. The US embassy’s charge d’affaires, Inmi Patterson, met with Wilbert Ibuge, permanent secretary at the foreign ministry, who reminded Patterson about the two countries’ “historical cooperation”, the foreign ministry said....
Uganda Starts Mass Production of its First Smartphone
Sourced from Gadgets Africa. Uganda will begin manufacturing its first smartphones through SIMI – a brand of smartphone makers that are said to have the average customer specifically in mind. The phones currently focus on one major aspect, battery life. The ‘regular’ non-smartphones can last up to at least two weeks and can charge via Solar power too. The smartphones have a battery capacity of at least two days. Currently, SIMI has the capacity to make 2000 phones a day. SIMI has already flagged off an 18,000 phone consignment that Uganda is exporting to Morocco sometime soon. The company also wants to involve university students in the development of apps and software for the handsets. Together with the production of the smartphones comes new regulations in the country, where phone import...
