Archives For mpesa

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Technology, data and the lost essence of Kenyan politics

March 7, 2013 — Leave a comment

The past few months have seen us treated to political debates and impressive shows of financial might as politicians crisscrossed the country trying to woo the electorate’s votes. The political landscape here is one that has been underpinned by group think rather than individuality that would form the basis of pure democracy, where the collective carries the day but an emancipated individual makes the decision.

I believe that technology can unlock this purer form of democracy by creating relevant and personalized information channels that if used well will bring down mental walls that keep our politics, governance and policy issues intertwined with matters ethnicity and other factors. Continue Reading…

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Rethinking education in a connected Kenya

March 1, 2013 — Leave a comment

The business of education has many players from the outfitters who kit our children every school term, the book maker who churns out thousands of ruled books for note taking, the schools who offer varied curricular, unions that ensure the rights of our teachers , the education institute that plans out our syllabus to government – who by looking at the many plans fronted in the battle for votes want to make it (the learning bit ) free in its entirety.

The new players in this ecosystem, who combined should change our model of knowledge dissemination are mobile and internet service providers who are often times synonymous, device manufacturers ,mobile application developers and government. Continue Reading…

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Reflections with Michael Joseph from Al Kags on Vimeo.

Posted on February 14, 2013 In Business, People, Technology, TV , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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NFC just might be the next big thing in mobile payments in Africa

May 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

Mobile payments has taken the attention of many firms globally from mobile network operators, credit card providers and others looking to benefit from the mobile lifestyles of the worlds 5 billion plus connected consumers. MasterCard, Visa, Western Union, PayPal and a host of startups are dabbling in the space with each jostling for leadership position in a billion dollar market opportunity.

Square a US based payment platform that went live with a C2B mobile payments proposition in February 2009; that marries mobile and credit card technology using custom hardware that plugs into an Iphone, Ipad or Android device, was recently reported to be processing 5 billion dollars in annual payments. However, their target markets have high credit card adoption and they face continued competition in that vertical.

Mpesa’s runaway success has seen many mobile operators including the parent company Vodafone try to replicate its success with nothing to write home about in comparison.

The next wave of innovation in mobile payments, I foresee being powered by NFC (Near Field Communication) – a contactless radio technology that can transmit data between two devices within close proximity. Continue Reading…

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Karanja Macharia, Nyanjiru Macharia and Kigen Kandie talk about the growth of Mobile Planet

January 12, 2012 — Leave a comment

Most technology start-ups die within the first five years. Sadly, many entrepreneurs fail to re-invent their ideas and end up being overtaken by time.

Mobile Planet Ltd, a local technology company has survived for 10 years. The entrepreneurs behind it, Karanja Macharia, Nyanjiru Macharia and Kigen Kandie say it has not been a smooth ride; they had to come up with new ideas every other day.

Mobile Planet is a licensed premium-rate services provider, delivering the now popular short-code SMS service in competitions, news, entertainment, chats and ring tones. For the last decade, they have been creating customized mobile solutions that mobile networks and corporate clients use to connect with the growing number of mobile users in Africa.

One thing that ails technology start-ups is the inability to transform great innovation ideas to profitable businesses. Before 2001, Karanja who is a Computer Science graduate had tried several other software ideas, all had died as soon as they were born. Continue Reading…

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Would Mpesa fair better as its own corporate entity?

December 22, 2011 — Leave a comment

The growth of the mobile industry in Africa has been nothing short of amazing, with the mobile phone becoming a defacto part of day to day life across all levels of society and innovation happening rapidly to increase its utility. One of the  pain points that individuals and corporations are trying to address is that of taking services closer to the consumer and with that comes the issue of payment for services.

Mpesa, which I consider an outlier service in respect to its runaway success in person to person mobile money transfer, is trying to add value to its service offering by going for the business end of things. This has seen larger utility companies leverage this to increase consumer satisfaction and improve on collection of revenue. In Kenya, the Mpesa service commands a 90+% share of the market, which doesn’t lend itself well to the replication that mobile network operators are trying to do across the world as the dynamics vary greatly. Continue Reading…

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Innovation on voice and non voice services will change operator fortunes

November 17, 2011 — Leave a comment

The tariff wars between the mobile operators was bound to have a resounding effect at some point in time, with the day of reckoning coming by way of Safaricom announcement of their half year results that saw a 47.4 percent dip in half year net profit to Ksh 4 billion. Traditional voice and messaging has in the past been majorly peer to peer and served as the cash cow for mobile  network operators. With consumers calling for lower tariffs on both these fronts, mobile network operators are having their work cut out for them, if the plum profits they have enjoyed in the past are to remain constant.

TNS Research International East Africa released a report last year dubbed  – Digital Life 2010  that looked into what Kenyans are doing online. That alongside other research can help in determining where to place effort and financing toward the creation of compelling new services for mobile network operators. What is important though is that this innovation need not come from within the operators but they should look to the growing local developer community.

My growth area forecasts are as follows.

Continue Reading…

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Using technology to get deeper insights into news

November 10, 2011 — Leave a comment

The past weekend saw a Kenyan  media house air a captivating investigative series covering what was claimed to be the largest drug haul in Kenya, tracing the drama and intrigues from the Netherlands to the shores of the Kenyan coast with names mentioned and all manner of conspiracy theories put forward. The blogosphere and social media sites exploded with conversations around this content and it was interesting to read peoples take on the “expose”.

More than deal with the contents of what was aired, I feel that we can use technology to better enhance the information experience of Kenyans. I choose the term “information experience” because a lot of what we consume is not “news” in the way that we choose to define it, but more of information. Continue Reading…

In Business, Mobile, Numbers and the bottom line, Technology , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Closing the loop in electronic commerce

October 27, 2011 — Leave a comment

This week came with the news that Naspers, a South Africa-based multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media and consolidated revenues for the year ended March 2011 standing at R. 33 billion {Ksh 396 billion}, closed its local operation of Kalahari {www.kalahari.co.ke}; their online retailing outfit. Though the exact reason for this pullout is yet to be disclosed officially, it draws sharp focus to what makes electronic commerce tick, more so that such a well heeled operation would wind up.

First let us walkthrough what would be considered a basic well thought out user experience for e-commerce . Continue Reading…

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Toilet seat musings of why Kalahari shut down

October 25, 2011 — 1 Comment

So the blogsphere is ablaze with the news of the Naspers backed Kalahari shutting some of their Africa operations. Well, my take is very simple…I am sufficiently tech savvy and well educated…I understand and use paperless cash ala credit and debit cards and use Mpesa often…I am an avid movie watcher and read tonnes of stuff on my Ipad.

A quick survey at the Nailab {5 peeps seated around a table} revealed that while 4 chaps read ebooks and watch movies {torrent supported} on this pad or that pad and 1 lady is a voracious reader {does a book every three months qualify for voracious??} None had actually bought anything that would have been sold by Kalahari on Kalahari, with the ads on tv and web notwithstanding {and not to mention the prices on Kalahari were more expensive}

So…if the so called early adopters {read as you and me} who have internet access, know how to use Mpesa yadyadayada were not buying stuff off Kalahari….who is? Rather..who was?

If you and I knew about it and never used the service or at least hit the site up a couple of times…are you surprised?

Was the market ready? Is m-commerce a dud in Kenya or are we selling the wrong things? Or maybe they made money but like now defunct Access Kenya website home.co.ke the revenues were nothing to write home to the multimillion dollar mothership. Well, Stafan and crew…mind sharing more on your challenges running these proprieties? Was the expectation too high?

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