Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Thursday May 14th, 2015

With U.S president Obama set to visit Kenya, our wrap-up today seeks to bring you insight on how his presence in the country will affect the tech atmosphere. To get stories on this and more, read on…

Obama to attend Nairobi Global Entrepreneurship Summit

President of the United States (US) Barack Obama is to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Nairobi, Kenya on July 25-26, which is one of his initiatives aimed at bringing together startups, business leaders, mentors, and high-level government officials.

Technology Idea (Tech-I) Competition 2015: Pakistani start-ups through to semi-finals

Four Pakistani startups – HerCareer.pk, Doct-HERs, Citrus Bio-refinery and Maseeha Foundation – have made it to the semi-final stage of the Technology Idea (Tech-I) Competition 2015. They will now look to end up in the top 15 – the decision of which would be based on a voting method – and attend the finals at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) this July in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya’s Alex Mwaura emerges second at IPA awards, bags Kshs 2.4 million

Alex Mwaura Muriu of Kenya has won the second prize and a prize cash of Kshs 2.4 million (US $ 25,000) in the 2015 edition of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA). Murui developed a system to meet the perennial challenge faced by African farmers in accessing capital to finance planting and harvesting by providing an alternative from the burden of financial loans through his Farm Capital Africa project.

PowerHive’s Kenya’s first private utility to sell electricity

Powerhive, Inc., a leading microgrid solutions provider, announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Powerhive East Africa Ltd., is the first private company in Kenya’s history to receive a utility concession to generate, distribute, and sell electricity to the Kenyan public.

Warrior Insight seeks to change Kenya’s security technology landscape

Warrior Insight, a specialised risk management company, is on a mission to change the security landscape in Kenya with a Kshs 189 million (US $2 million) investment in security technology solutions to help in the prevention and management of emerging threats facing organisation and the way security is done in Kenya.

Safaricom completes its countrywide network upgrade

Safaricom has completed upgrading its network countrywide which was aimed at improving the company’s services.The upgrade, which cost Kshs 10 billion, will see better user experience for Safaricom’s subscribers which include faster internet, better voice quality, improved coverage and more capacity for voice calls among others.