Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Friday April 17th, 2015

It’s one long weekend for M-PESA users as Safaricom halts services during relocation of from Germany to Kenya. For the two days M-PESA subscribers will not be able to access any services from their accounts. However, one Nzioka Waita, Safaricom’s Head of Corporate Affairs, must be one happy man as he now joins the Government after being appointed Secretary of Delivery in the Executive Office of the President this afternoon. This and more on today’s wrap up…

Safaricom’s Nzioka Waita appointed to Office of the President

After a long stint running for over a decade at Safaricom, Nzioka Waita has eventually been called to the Civil Service today in changes announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Mr Nzioka, who’s currently the mobile operator’s Head of Corporate Affairs, joined the firm in 2003 according to his LinkedIn profile.

The 39-year-old has been appointed Secretary of Delivery in the Executive Office of the President according the new appointments announced this afternoon.

No M-PESA this weekend

Safaricom customers will not be able to access any M-Pesa services over the weekend as the telecom giant moves to shut down its money transfer system and relocate servers from Germany to Kenya. The ongoing installation of M-Pesa servers locally is expected to end nearly eight years of foreign hosting, which has at times been cited for delayed response to service interruptions. The upgrade and relocation of the platform also comes at a time when M-Pesa is eyeing government payments such as pensions and salaries paid to beneficiaries in remote locations.

Kenswitch adopts localised chip-and-pin cards

Kenswitch has partnered with Trendmak, a local IT company to roll out chip-based payment cards to support banks migrate to the new secure platform without incurring extra costs. The move will hasten adoption of the more secured cards from the fraud-prone magnetic stripped cards currently in the Kenyan market.

“A lot has been put in place to ensure the ecosystem is ready to accept chip-based card transactions in terms of upgrading the ATM and PoS hardware and software for driving these terminals. The card is local and cost effective targeting the local market,” said Kenswitch managing director George Wainaina during the card launch held at Transnational Bank headquarters in Nairobi.

ACCA Kenya launches an online learning platform to provide digital access to accounting courses

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in collaboration with edX has launched an online platform, ACCA-X, for accessing professional courses in accounting and finance. ACCA-X, a high quality and open access courses will be delivered on the world-renowned edX platform, an online learning destination founded by MIT and Harvard. Anthony Kariuki Head of ACCA Kenya said the ACCA-X’s creation is the desire to provide accessible, affordable and high quality learning that provides ambitious individuals anywhere with the opportunity to obtain the skills and qualifications they can use for a rewarding career.

Software firm holds forum to showcase innovation

Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP) solutions provider, SYSPRO, will showcase its latest software solutions in Kenya at an exclusive customer event to be held tomorrow in Nairobi. The forum, “SYSPRO 7 Customer Day”, will provide customers with the opportunity to learn all about the latest developments in SYSPRO 7 and the new SYSPRO Espresso mobile solution. SYSPRO 7, the latest version of SYSPRO, provides users with greater scalability, mobility and performance to effectively streamline business processes.