Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Monday May 25th, 2015

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Interior ministry officials at the National Surveillance, Communication and Command centre in Nairobi

Police Service to begin using Safaricom’s integrated communication solution… Mukhisa Kituyi among the Guest Speakers at the10th WSIS Forum in Geneva….and more.

Police Service to begin using Safaricom’s integrated communication solution

The National Police Service is set to begin using the integrated communications solution deployed by Safaricom which harnesses data in real-time to respond to various security issues. This follows the hand-over of the first phase of the National Surveillance, Communication and Control System for Nairobi and Mombasa to President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday May 23.

“I am pleased by the rapid progress that has been made in making this initiative a reality. The prospect that we shall be able to leverage technology to build a more robust security response for our citizens is a key deliverable for the government,” said President Kenyatta.

IT firm showcases software solution

BLUEKEY Software Solutions, a specialist enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider to small and mid-sized businesses throughout Africa, recently hosted a seminar in Tanzania and Uganda to showcase the power, speed and benefits of SAP’s latest in-memory technology – SAP HANA. SAP HANA is an in-memory; column-oriented, relational database management system developed and marketed by SAP SE. HANA’s architecture is designed to handle both high transaction rates and complex query processing on the same platform.

Firm wins inaugural startups’ contest

Interworld, the Uganda software firm, has won the inaugural edition of the Payments Dragons Den Africa at the just-ended Mobile Money and Digital Payments. The event was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Intelworld beat two other contestants, including one that failed to pitch up, for the pitch.

Telecoms drive Rwanda cashless

Rwanda’s three main telecom networks, MTN Rwanda, Airtel Rwanda and Tigo Rwanda are helping to drive the country to towards a cashless economy to complement government efforts. For the telecoms industry, the introduction of Mobile Money is seen as a major drive to financial inclusion. The access to various financial services under this platform is aimed at supporting government’s efforts to bring more Rwandans into the formal financial system.

Mukhisa Kituyi among key speakers at 10th WSIS Forum in Geneva

Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General, UNCTAD has been nominated among the key speakers at the 10th UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), where participants from government, civil society, the private sector and international organizations are meeting in Geneva to identify emerging trends, fresh priorities and innovations for advancing the ‘ICT for development’ agenda, while strengthening the impact of ICTs as an enabler of sustainable development.

Airtel Money, Visa card drive financial inclusion

On year after Airtel Kenya launched the Airtel Money VISA card, the debit card continues to allow easy access funds 24 hours a day, bringing new point-of-sale and ATM transaction options to users. The Airtel Money VISA card was as a result of a partnership between Airtel Kenya, leading global payments technology company VISA and the best SME bank in Kenya, Chase Bank.