Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Friday June 5th, 2015

DEMO Africa team set to meet start-ups in Nairobi…PIVOT East announces its 2015 Semi-finalists…Kenya’s Global ICT ranking moves 6 positions up…and much more.

DEMO Africa team set to meet start-ups in Nairobi

The DEMO Africa team is set to interact with technology eco-system in East Africa at an organized pre-pitch event on Friday June 12, 2015. The pre-pitch event which will go down at PAWA254 studio will see start-ups receive feedback on their projects and stand a chance to pitch to a panel of hand-picked technology industry players. The most outstanding on these start-ups will get a direct nomination to DEMO Africa with ticket and accommodation fully paid for. Start-up teams from East Africa can now register to interact with the DEMO Africa team in Nairobi.

PIVOT East announces its 2015 semi-finalists

PIVOT East, a startups competition geared towards nurturing the growing ICT talent in East Africa, has unveiled semifinalist for this year’s competition. The competition opened the call for applications in April 2015 with startups from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia applying through an online portal (startups.pivoteast.com. This year also saw startups from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Israel applying to join the competition.PIVOT East announces its 2015 Semi-finalists

Uber Kenya to begin taking cash, mobile money payments

Taxi hailing firm Uber has added cash and mobile money payment options to its service in Nairobi in a bid to grow the number of users. The options go live Friday, making Kenya the second market in which Uber has added a cash option after trying out its card-based cashless model.

GOTV, Star Times lose digital case

The High Court has withdrawn orders stopping Citizen TV, NTV and KTN from airing an advert notifying viewers that GOTV and Star Times had no authority to air their content. The High Court reversed the orders it issued in favour of GOTV and Star Times barring Royal Media Services Limited, Nation Media Group and Standard Media Group from airing an advert the two had complained was misinforming to the public.

Kenya’s Global ICT ranking goes six positions up

Kenya has moved six positions up in this year’s ICT Network Readiness Index revealed at this year’s World Economic Forum in Cape Town. Last year, Kenya held the 92nd position and moved up to the 85th position, coming in as the fifth country in Africa after South Africa at position, 75, Morocco at 78, Tunisia at 81 and Rwanda at position 83 globally. The report showed that big economies in Africa like South Africa and Nigeria fell in rankings and only Kenya showed yearly improvement. For instance South Africa fell from 70 to 75th position this year and Nigeria lost ground to be 119th position from 112 achieved previously.

Kenya’s Gov’t to make better decisions from products made out of big data, says Dr Ndemo

As the number of Africans using technology grows, so does the influx of big data. With the global industry’s worth estimated at more than $100 billion and growing at ten percent every year, the impact of big data on both public and private sector is huge. This week ‘CNN Marketplace Africa’ hosted by Zane Asher this week explored how multinational companies like IBM are working with local governments on the continent to disseminate the information in efforts to create policies, programmes, and new products.

CA signs MoU to foster growth of broadcasting sector

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has signed working agreements with the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) and the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) with the aim of fostering growth in the broadcasting sector. In a statement, CA said that the broadcasting landscape has over the years undergone numerous technological changes which has resulted in convergence and in turn changed how people consume information therefor these changes were calling for adjustments in governance and regulation of the sector to facilitate and encourage development of uniquely Kenyan television programming.