Wrap-Up: Our pick of main stories, Tuesday September 29th, 2015

Over 1,600 Kenyan students get ICT certification after completing IBM’s African Skills Initiative course

Since its launch in September 2014, IBM’s African Skills Initiative in partnership Kenya Education Network (KENET), have so far equipped over 1600 students with their certification courses that aim to develop and enhance entry-level job skills among university students. This follows an MoU signed by KENET and IBM that allows IBM to deliver advanced online hands-on certification courses to faculty and students of participating universities over KENET’s broadband network.

President Kenyatta recognised for promoting use of ICT for Sustainable Development

The International Telecommunications Union has given President Uhuru Kenyatta an award for promoting the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for development. The president was awarded “The ICTs in Sustainable Development Award” which honors the important contributions made by leaders, on behalf of their countries, towards harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable development.

Agilitude opens East African office on the back of mobility and Cloud growth

Agilitude has announced that is has opened an office in Kenya, making East Africa its next target for growth. Agilitude opened its South African operation in May 2013 and has experienced significant growth on the back of its Salesforce partnership, but also the uptake and interest in customer experience management. Quinton Pienaar, CEO, Agilitude says that the expansion into East Africa is part of the company’s ongoing growth strategy: “Kenya is a vibrant economy and underrepresented in terms of cloud and customer experience service providers. It is also strategic in that it can more easily service the region.”

MasterCard Research: Digital wallets driving payments innovation in Kenya

According to the MasterCard Innovation Social Listening Study, digital wallets are the main topic of discussion online when it comes to payments innovation in some of the world’s biggest emerging markets. In partnership with PRIME Research, the MasterCard social listening study analysed over 10,000 online conversations between 1 May 2015 and 30 July 2015 in seven countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia to learn what payment innovations people in these markets are most excited about and what safety and security concerns they have about adopting the latest technology.

Price Wars – telecoms are likely to bleed

Daring, unprecedented, anti-competition and bold are some of the words being used to describe the move by MTN to cut rates on voice calls by nearly 46 per cent last week. MTN, which is the market leader and only profitable telecom in Uganda, has in the past hesitated to reduce call tariffs, insisting the move would eat into its bottom line.

New career portal matches job seekers, prospective employers

Rocket Internet’s career portal, Everjobs has launched its service for Ethiopian job seekers on September 22, 2015 at Sheraton Addis Hotel. Everjobs is an online platform created as a job searching and recruitment facility which connects job seekers with employers. Working with a number of organisations the company aims to utilise the current economic context of the country.

Kenya to issue first bond via mobile

Kenya’s plans to float the first-ever Government Bond to be offered exclusively via mobile phone points to the growing relevance of mobile money solutions in the payments space. The solution, known as M-Akiba, will be delivered in partnership with Safaricom’s M-PESA to continue a push that seeks to deepen access for retail bond trading.

Kigali PSVs miss e-ticketing deadline

Plans to extend the ‘Smart Kigali’ initiative to city public transport sector have hit a snag following failure by operators and the regulator to acquire the required equipment to facilitate the switchover. City public transport service providers were supposed to switch to automated fare collection services (using smart cards) by the beginning of this month, according to a roadmap by the operators and the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA).
MTN, Airtel slash call charges

MTN Uganda’s latest cut of its call rates could reignite the battle for mobile phone customers, and spark off a price war. In a recent press statement, MTN announced a new tariff of three shillings per second for its postpaid customers calling across all networks. The new charge means MTN has slashed its voice call charges by 45 per cent, the company announced. Previously, MTN’s postpaid customers paid five shillings per second or Shs 300 per minute.