Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Friday February 27, 2015

Even as the tussle on Digital Migration continues, the tech arena has been doing much better. From Meru County residents receiving it’s own Huduma Centre, to KNBS now moving to a digital platform to share their data in a more user friendly manner…Here is our today’s wrap up.

Igot.com acquires Tagpesa, continues momentum in Kenya

Igot, a Bitcoin exchange, recently announced its acquisition of Kenya’s TagPesa crypto exchange and remittance gateway.

In addition, the exchange also was granted access to M-Pesa, giving members the ability to cash out directly from the country’s mobile payment system. Igot was created to enable people to buy, sell, send, and receive Bitcoin around the globe, and is open for business in over 40 countries, including the European Union and parts of the Middle East and Africa.

MITSUMI Distribution appointed regional dealer for Canon products in East Africa

Canon Middle East, provider of imaging solutions, has appointed MITSUMI Distribution as the regional distributor of Canon PV (photo video) products, OPP (office personal products) and OIP (Office Imaging products) in East Africa region. The additional distribution services from Mitsumi Distribution, will cover Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

With the appointment of MITSUMI distribution as the additional Canon distributor for East Africa, customers will now have even better access to a wide range of channel products with genuine product warranty.

Meru County residents to now acquire Huduma Centre services

Meru now becomes the tenth county to get Huduma Centre services, this is after an official launch presided over His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta and Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Hon. Ann Waiguru.

The Meru Huduma Centre opened its doors as from Wednesday, 25th February and is expected to serve at least 1000 Kenyans per day. Other counties receiving Huduma Centre services include: Nairobi, Machakos, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kakamega, Kisumu, Nyeri, Embu and Mombasa

KNBS, @ILab Africa, launch Data and Visualization portal

Strathmore University through @iLabAfrica has collaborated with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in launching the Data and Visualization portal which will help make available data and visualizations of key publications specifically: The 2009 Census Report, Eco­nomic Sur­vey Report (2001−2014), GDP Report (2001−2014), and select County Stat­ist­ical data. This has also been made pos­sible through fund­ing from The World Bank. KNBS Data Visualization portal was built by Strathmore Masters students in about 4 months through Tableau Software.

“The funding is as a result of a long serving relationship between World Bank and KNBS. This is a very timely project as information will allow counties to make more informed decisions in planning.We are also responding to county governors who need this data to make important decision,” said Mr. Philip Jespersen – Senior Social Development Specialist at World Bank.

@iBizAfrica wants you to sign up for ‘Neg­awatt Week­end’ Nairobi Challenge

This March, @iBizAfrica in collaboration with the World Bank and iHub Nairobi are set to bring you the ‘Neg­awatt Weekend’ which is part of the Negawatt Challenge, a global competition to empower communities to innovate around local energy issues.

Using a multi-phase open innovation methodology, this initiative aims to transform cities into more sustainable and energy efficient places. The two days hack­a­thon will help one experience what it’s like to create and launch a start-up idea to solve local energy efficiency challenges. Participants will form teams and compete with one another to address specific challenge statements about local energy efficiency issues. Together, team members will come up with potential solutions that they refine and pitch in front of a jury.

Finally! Group protests against digital migration initiative

According to Capital FM news, Anti riot police officers were today deployed to the Communications Authority to disperse a group of demonstrators protesting against the Digital Migration process.