Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Monday January 26, 2015

Safaricom CEO promises investigation over alleged scams in online promos….. Kenya-based MFI goes mobile with Microsoft Dynamics NAV….. Nairobi only African town on ‘Intelligent Cities’ list….and much more in our today’s wrap up.

Safaricom CEO promises investigation over alleged scams in online promos

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has finally responded to a blog post that claims the telco has been scamming its customers through their promotions.

Collymore replied to a tweet by Kennedy Mureithi ‏(@KenMureithi) using his personal twitter account. Mureithi posted a short message to Collymore’s twitter page where he also tagged both of Safaricom’s official twitter handles and put a link to the particular blog post.

Kenya-based MFI goes mobile with Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Greenland Fedha Limited (GFL), one of the largest microfinance institutions (MFI) for small-scale tea farmers in Kenya, has incorporated Microsoft Dynamics NAV to help it automate its processes as well as enable it develop a mobile payment solution thus enhancing seamless business operations.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product from Microsoft. The product is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise and local subsidiaries of large international Groups.

Safaricom to set up Kshs 3 billion M-Pesa Academy in Thika

Telecommunications company Safaricom is building a school that will accommodate up to 1,000 needy students, joining a growing list of blue chip companies that are spending billions of shillings to educate disadvantaged children.

According to Business Daily, the secondary school, dubbed M-Pesa Academy, will be built on a 50-acre piece of land in Thika.

“The project cost is just shy of Kshs 3 billion,” said Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore in an interview.

Jumia partners with Aramex to launch offline pick-up points

Jumia Kenya has partnered with Aramex, a local courier firm, to allow its customers to pick up items they purchase on the website from Aramex stores across Nairobi.

Parinaz Firozi, MD, Jumia Kenya said, “Some of our Customers who prefer to have their deliveries made at Aramex stores for pick up can select the closest store during the checkout process and click on ‘ship to this address’ and our customer centric staff will ensure quality service upon pick up.”

Nairobi only African town on ‘Intelligent Cities’ list

A new ranking by the Intelligent Community Forum has positioned Nairobi as the only African city to be shortlisted in the top 21 intelligent cities list.

The list sees Kenya’s capital city being named as one of the Smart21 intelligent communities in the world for the year 2015.

The forum describes an ‘intelligent community’ as “those which have – whether through crisis or foresight – come to understand the enormous challenges of the broadband economy, and have taken conscious steps to create an economy capable of prospering in it.”

Kenyan developers shine at Vodacom AppStar challenge

Kenyan participants have emerged as the winners of this year’s Vodacom Appstar challenge held in Bangalore China which had over 1,000 app developers participating.

AppStar Challenge is an annual developer challenge that seeks to showcase and recognize the top developers from various emerging markets in an international finals.

This year’s finals were held in Bangalore India where participants from Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana and India competed in 2 categories for top awards. The categories for the competition were Upcoming Developer which allows emerging and young developers to compete against others within the same category and Established Developers which pits companies that have been in existence for more than 3 years.